A Plano, Texas, Jaguar dealership has asked a court to settle a dispute with Jaguar Land Rover over disputed manufacturer charges for the dealership.
Attorneys from the Dallas law firm of Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, who represent Millennium Jaguar of Texas Inc., dba Millennium Motor Cars, filed suit earlier in August against Jaguar Land Rover North America LLC and three of the dealership's former employees. The Millennium lawsuit claims the former employees concealed information and misstated performance statistics. The employees involved were either terminated or resigned.
Jaguar Land Rover ordered a full audit of Millennium's warranty and sales-incentive records and subsequently made demands that Millennium pay Jaguar Land Rover more than $600,000. Following Millennium's internal investigation of Jaguar Land Rover's claims, Millennium made a good faith payment of nearly $100,000 related to paperwork errors, along with a request for further investigation into the remaining amount Jaguar Land Rover claims is owed. The problems were limited to internal warranty and sales-incentive paperwork and invoices, and at no time were customers charged for unnecessary or unperformed warranty repairs or service.
However, the lawsuit states Jaguar Land Rover refused to provide the dealership with all information that it uncovered in the course of its audit. According to Millennium Jaguar of Texas Inc., despite repeated requests, Jaguar Land Rover senior management has refused to reveal all the facts on which the audit was based.
"Millennium owner David Stephens has made a career out of doing the right thing, and as a result has been recognized for his ethics and business practices alike. He has proven this again by taking the remedial action of voluntarily refunding the money believed to be rightfully owed to the manufacturer," says Millennium's attorney Brian Melton, a partner in Shackelford Melton & McKinley. "Based on what Jaguar Land Rover has provided to us, most of their findings are related to superficial paperwork problems. We are extremely confident that a complete examination of the facts will vindicate David Stephens and the Millennium dealership."
This week, Jaguar Land Rover filed its own lawsuit in response to the matter. That case is pending in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
For more information, visit www.millenniummotorcars.com.
