Hi; Unfortunately this is the down side to this hobby, especialy when rare cars are involved. I had had two battles I'll decribe here. We bought a restored 57 Chevy convertible recently , paid for it in full. It was raining and we opted to wat until the next clear day to pick the car up on the rollback. We paid for it in full and clearly noted the vin number complete and purchase price and paid for in full on the memo . The title was given to us and away we went, this was friday. He was not available on the weekend to obtain the car. On monday we called to pick the car, at that point we were told that he was not available . Tuesday he called saying that he changed his mind and wanted to keep the car. Hemmings came out over the weekend just to note and the car was advertised in there. he had not cashed the check at that point and we had applied for the title change on Monday. He dupped the title on that same day, Nice. Quick call to Our Lawyer and the a call to Bruce Shaw as well. two months later in court we obtained the car and he had to pay the lawyers fees Because. A Check is a contract, if you surerender the title signed and take the payment regardless if it cashed or not it is a valid contract.
This one isn't so good I bought a 67 Z-28 thru a second party ,the owner was now located in flordia. The deal was struck and I sent a rollback . When my rollback arrived to pick the car up he was informed that the car was sold to another person. That person was the same person that I had asked about 15x6 ralleys, the same person that sat across my desk just an hour before and said He wouldn't step on my feet he didn't realize it was me who had bought the car. I contacted the owner an He told me another party had contacted him today and offered more money,but He wanted to give Me an oppertunity to buy the car for more. I raised my offer by a couple of thousand and He told me go get the car. I drove 30 miles to meet my rollback to insure pickup. when I got there it was already loaded on the other persons truck. Words exchanged and I stated that I was the ownerand unload the car. By the time the police responde He left across a 4 lane highway without tieing the car down just the winch holding it. The next day the wire transfer had posted the owner met Dave Murray of classic cars of Tampa and filled out a complete bill of sale and surrenderd the title to him. Dave next dayed the title because the police said I need the bill of sale and the title to show ownership. 1st trip to the Police yeilded the bill of sale not official because it wasn't Notorized. The owner this time went to Golden Classics in Clearwater where He lived and they filled out a Notorized bill of sale and next dayed it to me. Trip 2 to the police resulted in they would not fill out a stolen car report because the title was not in my name. meanwhile the car had been transported out of state and put into hiding. a quick trip to DMV and the title was in my name, Trip 3 to the police with the title, bill of sale, wire trnasfer papers, bank proofs, etc. this time they called the person who took , they said they owned it and I had bought out from under them. Because it was now out of state the police said it was now a Civil Matter. Trip to magistate , they said it wasn't in their juristiction and had no authority in Pa. Meanwhile the car was sold to a Pa. state trooper who collects camaro's. I contacted him and was told I will gladly pay You for the car but I'm keeping it. I contacted Bruce Shaw to do a Replevin, he wanted 3500.00 as a retainer and would proceed from there. 4 Months later and No car No Money and alot of wasted time I ran into the person who now had the car that I owned. I wound up selling the car (title) to him just to end the BS. So lesson learned Possesion is 9/10th's of the Law. Took the lumps and bought something else. several of the members here know this story well and kept it hush thankfully. You win some You lose some.
Jim
