In ‘comedy of errors’, towed BMW sold at auction

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/12/2018 (2512 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The long and winding legal journey of a leased BMW automobile that was towed then sold at auction has come to an end.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal this week ruled that Tartan Towing has to pay Kobi’s Auto Ltd. $10,177 for the sedan that it sold at auction, and that the retired nurse who leased it should not have to pay Kobi’s $24,664 — which it said would amount to a windfall for the auto dealer.

The Dec. 11 appeal court decision overturned a 2017 Court of Queen’s Bench decision after the case involving the missing-then-sold BMW went to trial. The Manitoba Court of Appeal called the series of events leading up to it a “comedy of errors.”

In October 2013, Sonja Pecanac entered into a four-year lease of a 2004 BMW sedan with Kobi’s Auto Ltd. The total amount of the lease was $21,192. She paid a deposit of $6,000 and was required to make bi-weekly payments of $309.63.

At a trial nearly two years ago, Pecanac testified that the BMW needed servicing and an Osborne Village garage told her to leave the vehicle on a side street.

In November 2014, the city ticketed the car as an abandoned vehicle, and Tartan towed it, first to another street about a kilometre away and then to its compound.

Pecanac discovered the car was gone and searched the area. She said she called the city’s 311 service and local tow truck companies, including Tartan, but no one knew where it was.

She reported it stolen and, on Dec. 9, 2014, police told her they found the car impounded at Tartan’s lot. She couldn’t afford the fee to get the car back, she testified, and told Tartan Towing that in a phone conversation.

“Tartan never told Pecanac that, if she did not reclaim the vehicle, it would be sold at auction,” this week’s appeal court decision said. “Oddly, Pecanac never told (Kobi’s Auto) that Tartan had the vehicle and continued to make payments on the lease up until the time it was auctioned months later.”

In April 2015, the vehicle was sold at public auction for $9,000. The defendant, Satnam Brar, purchased the vehicle on behalf of Tartan to be used for corporate purposes. After a delay of several weeks in obtaining a key for the vehicle from the manufacturer, the vehicle was started and the global positioning system in it activated, which notified Kobi’s Auto of its location.

In May 2015, Kobi’s contacted Tartan and demanded the return of the vehicle. Tartan refused and advised the plaintiff it had purchased the vehicle at the auction.

In June 2015, Kobi’s filed its statement of claim, suing Pecanac for defaulting on the lease and Tartan and three of its directors for selling it without providing it with proper notice.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal decided that Tartan didn’t try hard enough to locate the owner of the vehicle and that publishing a notice of sale in The Manitoba Gazette wasn’t enough to meet Tartan’s legal obligations of notifying the owner.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca