Judges Devote Week to Get Settlements Short of Trial

Robert Arndt has some advice if you have missed a couple of payments on your car: Don’t go to Mexico.

For Arndt, a former Orange County resident, the knowledge was hard-won. He claims that Chrysler Credit Corp. officials called Mexican police and reported that he had stolen the car, leading to his arrest, jailing and beating in 1984.

Arndt’s lawsuit against Chrysler is one of more than 540 about which lawyers met with Superior Court judges Monday and Tuesday in an attempt to end litigation short of trial.

A dozen judges have scheduled settlement conferences rather than trials all this week. The objective is to eliminate some of the backlog of civil cases, which has been growing steadily in the last six months.

In Arndt’s case, Chrysler lawyers insist that all of their moves were legal in repossessing the 1983 Dodge in Colima in southwest Mexico.

“At no time did Chrysler Credit Corp. instruct or request the Colima Police Department to arrest or imprison (Arndt),” the firm said in a response to Arndt’s suit.

If Arndt was arrested, “such actions were taken solely on the initiative of the Colima Police Department, and Chrysler Credit Corp. is not responsible,” the firm said.

Arndt was held for 24 hours in February, 1984, according to his lawyer, Douglas B. Finlayson. While in custody, he was severely beaten by cellmates, the suit alleges.

Arndt, who now lives in Mexico, has asked for at least $250,000 in damages.

However, toting up the unpaid balance of his payments and the expenses of repossession, Arndt should pay Chrysler $7,027, the firm claimed.

Finlayson said Arndt’s experience “was like ‘Midnight Express,’ ” referring to the motion picture about an American jailed on drug-smuggling charges in Turkey. “My client has suffered injuries which are emotional--difficulty in sleeping, continued fear.”

Arndt, 51, was attempting to set up an English-language school at the time of the incident, Finlayson said.

Chrysler may have had the right to repossess the car, Finlayson acknowledged. “If it had been in the United States, they would never have called the police,” he said.

Judge Jerrold S. Oliver ordered the case to arbitration.

The settlement conference week has been used in the past to take a bite out of the inventory of unresolved civil lawsuits.

Superior Court judges claim that they are understaffed and need additional judgeships to handle normal growth in new cases and increased demands on judicial time by a growing number of criminal trials.

More than 34% of all cases discussed Monday were settled, according to the court.