A North Hollywood Toyota dealership managed to coax out a lease deal from a man suffering from dementia.
A North Hollywood Toyota dealership announced on Facebook earlier today (Apr. 12,2019) that, due to increasing public backlash from one justifiably angry son and from the general public, they’re returning the downpayment and canceling the contract to a new 2019 Toyota Tacoma to a man they supposedly didn’t realize had dementia. Check out their Facebook post below and in the event the post is deleted, a screenshot is provided.
Steven Seward got the shock of his life when he got a call from his Dad that he’s now the new owner of a Ford Ranger. The dad has been suffering from dementia for years and according to Steven, “it’s almost impossible to have a conversation with him.” referencing his signs, he doesn’t even have valid Calif. drivers license. Steven later found out that he didn’t get a Ford Ranger but it was a Toyota Tacoma. Toyota of North Hollywood managed to coax out a lease deal of $11,000 down and $600 a month.
Toyota of North Hollywood claims that they had no idea the man had dementia when he walked in or throughout the entire lease deal. That’s hard to believe given how long he’s been suffering.
In order to collect evidence against the dealership, Steven had his friend walk in and sign a similar lease deal on almost the exact same truck. His lease terms where around $2,000 down and only $299 a month, vastly different lease terms given chasm between the down payments.
Here’s Steven’s Yelp review in a plea to the public below.
Read Steven S.‘s review of Toyota North Hollywood on Yelp
And here’s his review verbatim when the review above inevitably gets scrubbed from the internet.
Desperate to get North Hollywood Toyota to take back the lease deal, the truck, and to inform the public what kind of sales team they have, Steven emblazoned his Dad’s new Tacoma with the aforementioned posterboards informing potential customers not to deal with them and parked it legally near to them.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwK_deKnqNP/
California law is pretty clear when it comes to the elements of a contract. According to Brown and Charbonneau LLP and any Business Law textbook really, “There must be a meeting of the minds. The parties must intend to enter into a contract and must both have the same understanding of the terms of the agreement. Under common law rules, the mirror image rule applied, and a contract was created only if both parties had the same agreement terms.” In other words, a man with dementia can’t be legally expected to enter into any binding contract, at least, by himself.
The contract was void from the beginning and was dead in the water long before terms were drawn up. Presumably, Toyota of North Hollywood realized this after a week of reflecting and immediately reneged on their so-called “contract.”
In my opinion, seeing that this man wasn’t all there and to get the most out of him, sadly, in the least amount of time, they took every penny he had in a shame lease deal that would legally allow them to repo the truck when the man defaulted on his first payment. They’d be $11,000 richer and still have mostly new truck to put on their used lot.
This is certainly not the first time a dealership took advantage of a person with limited mental capacity. In 2012, a Nissan dealership sold a $62,000 Nissan Murano Convertible to a man also with dementia.
I surely hope some attorney catches wind on this and sues that Toyota of North Hollywood dealership to return the family whole. Sure, they’ve returned the truck but they also suffered undue stress. Punitive damages should be awarded their way to prevent other dealerships from even THINKING of selling anything to someone with even a light headache.
Source: Toyota of North Hollywood
