An international student who flew to Saudi Arabia for his father’s funeral and returned to find his BMW had been sold by Kustom Towing has been awarded $14,000 by the Victoria provincial small claims court.
On May 21, 2014, Mohammed Alattas received news that his father was dying. Alattas, who was a student at Royal Roads University and had an apartment in Victoria, wanted to get to his father’s bedside quickly.
He bought an airline ticket for the next day, then went to Robbins Parking to arrange payment for parking at one of its lots.
Robbins gave him a decal, but Alattas forgot to put it on his car, Judge Adrian Brooks noted in his ruling. On June 16, Robbins had the car towed away by Kustom Towing. However, for months afterward, Robbins continued to charge Alattas for the parking.
“As a result, Mr. Alattas had no suspicion that his car was anywhere but safely parked with Robbins. Unbeknownst to him, and all due to the chain of events set off by his moment of forgetfulness, his 2007 low-mileage BMW, valued at between $14,000 and $19,000, was sold by Kustom for $2,000,” Brooks said.
During a trial in September, Brooks was asked to decide if Kustom had the authority to sell the car. Kustom asserted it had the authority because it had given proper notice under the Warehouse Lien Act.
But Brooks disagreed, ruling that Kustom had not obeyed the law. The towing company sent a notice to Alattas at the International Student Centre, an address he had left with the Insurance Corp. of B.C.
But it was sent in an ordinary envelope by regular mail. “There was nothing on the envelope to suggest there is time-sensitive information inside or that this envelope is anything other than junk mail,” Brooks said.
Kustom’s notice demanded full payment of its bill by July 14, and said that if it was not received by Aug. 4, the car would be advertised for sale at public auction.
Kustom general manager, Cheryl Parker, placed two ads in newspapers, and the car was sold for $2,000 to a mechanic who works for a company that repairs Kustom vehicles.
Brooks said he accepted that the towing business is a difficult business, but observed that the lien act gives a means of having bills paid using the property of others in a short period of time. “That is a significant benefit to them. To ask only that they comply with the law does not seem too high a price to pay.”
The car was valued at $15,000 by one dealership and $10,000 by another. Alattas bought the car six months earlier for $21,000. He estimated its value in May 2014 was $19,000. However, because Alattas claimed the car on his tax form at $14,000, Brooks awarded him that amount.
Brooks dismissed Alattas’s claim for computer equipment, honey and clothes that were left in the car. Parker testified that the contents of Alattas’s car were given to charity.
Kustom Towing has filed notice of appeal. Lawyer Marlisa Martin said, in her view, Brooks had put an extra burden on all warehouse operators in terms of finding property owners when those owners disappear.
“This case is more important than just the student and this towing company,” Martin said. “It has larger implications in and across many different warehousers from dockyards to storage companies. Now warehousers are going to take extra steps to try and find people who have disappeared.”
The appeal is expected to be heard in B.C. Supreme Court next summer, she said.
