Ohio Consumers Sue State Farm Over Salvage Vehicles

Dayton, OH, December 27, 2005 --(PR.com)-- Angry consumers have filed lawsuits in Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo, Celina, Napoleon and Ottawa, in the last few weeks, against State Farm Insurance Company and local car dealers claiming they had not told the truth about salvage cars they were selling and which the insurance company had totaled out and then resold.

The lawsuits claim State Farm illegally resold more than 30,000 totaled out cars in violation of state laws nationwide between 1997 and 2002.

In Ohio alone, violating the law like that could have cost State Farm $25,000 per vehicle in government fines alone, with one-fourth of each fine ending up in the local county treasury.

Now a class action case has been filed in Dayton against State Farm challenging a settlement between State Farm and the Ohio Attorney General which consumers claim leaves them short.

When Maria Loftis bought a 1987 Chevrolet Monte Carlo Super Sport in Preble County last year, she and her husband thought the Super Sport would be safe transportation and ideal to restore to near "show" quality for car shows. That changed last September when they got a letter from the state of Ohio that said their car was just "salvage" with a title that was no good. Worse yet, they would have to get a new car title issued that was branded as a "rebuilt salvage" vehicle.

Loftis claims that sometime in 1999 the vehicle had been declared a total loss by State Farm. State Farm retitled the vehicle into its own name in Montgomery County, Ohio, and then sold the car to a local used car dealer, A & B Auto Sales, with a "clean" title that Loftis claims hid the fact that the car had been totaled. A & B rebuilt the car and then dumped it on the used car market without retitling the vehicle as "salvage" either. A & B sold it to Jeff Miller Auto Sales in New Lebanon, Ohio, where it was later sold to James Myers and Myers later sold it to Mr. And Mrs. Loftis.

No one ever told the Loftis family about the vehicle’s history or that it had been declared salvage. State Farm offered Mr. and Mrs. Loftis $1,000.

Dissatisfied with State Farm’s offer, and not being told what caused State Farm to total out the car in the first place, Loftis filed a class action against State Farm, asking the court to allow them to represent all State Farm consumer victims in 25 southwest Ohio counties: Darke, Shelby, Logan, Union, Franklin, Miami, Champaign, Madison, Preble, Montgomery, Clark, Pickaway, Greene, Butler, Warren, Clinton, Fayette, Ross, Hamilton, Clermont, Brown, Adams, Scioto, Pike, and Highland counties, where almost 100 other victims reside.

Loftis is seeking unspecified damages for all Southwest Ohio consumers and an injunction to stop State Farm from reselling totaled vehicles without disclosing the vehicles’ prior history.

Dayton attorney Ronald Burdge is handling all the cases filed so far in Ohio.

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