Angry Car Buyer Sued for Picketing

When Thomas Gantt wasn’t happy with the Pontiac Firebird he bought last May, the Hawthorne resident picketed the dealership, claiming it had sold him a used car instead of a new one.

Now Lee Spurlock, the general manager of Prince Pontiac, is angry about being called a “crooked man,” and he and the dealership--which denies any wrongdoing--are fighting back with a $1.5-million libel suit against Gantt.

In an interview, Gantt, 26, said that in May he bought the 1987 Firebird from the dealership at 4201 Imperial Highway in Hawthorne. It was sold to him as a new car, he said, but registration documents mailed to him from the Department of Motor Vehicles a few days later said the car was used.

“Basically, they defrauded me,” Gantt said. “They tried to pull a big swindle on me.”

32 Miles on Odometer

During the next several months, Gantt said, he tried to find a lawyer, determine his rights and figure out whether the car, which had 32 miles on the odometer when he bought it, was new or used. People at the dealership kept giving him different answers, he said.

Finally, he picketed the dealership almost daily from Sept. 20 until Oct. 25, he said.

According to the libel suit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, the signs read: “New. Used. Wrecked. Don’t matter. Prince sells them new anyway” and “Prince Pontiac is a crooked dealership. Crooked man Lee Spurlock.”

Gantt’s signs, and his comments to Prince Pontiac customers at the dealership, exposed Spurlock and the company to “hatred, contempt and ridicule,” the suit says, and as a result Spurlock suffered shame, hurt feelings and loss to his reputation.

A DMV spokesman said the department is investigating Gantt’s claim.

Conflicting Evidence

“The sales document indicates it was a new car. The registration card that Mr. Gantt received from the DMV said it was a used car,” said Bill Gengler, information officer for the department. He said he could not elaborate because the matter is under investigation.

David Stitz, a lawyer for Prince Pontiac, said a sale had been started on the car before Gantt bought it. But the would-be buyer, who was allowed to take possession of the car briefly, did not have sufficient credit and had to return the vehicle. Stitz said it was then sold to Gantt.

Stitz said that whether the car was “new” would depend on one’s definition of the term, but he noted that it was never registered in another person’s name, the odometer reading was normal for a new car, and Gantt received a new-car warranty.

Stitz said a personnel change at the dealership resulted in “an innocent mistake” on Gantt’s paper work.

The lawyer said Gantt should have been told that the car was an “unwind,” a term used to describe cars that have been returned when a sale does not go through. “The employee responsible for inserting that on the stock card did not do so,” Stitz said. “At the time of selling the car to Gantt, they did not have a card with ‘unwind’ on it.

“The people who were there when the car was first sold, they weren’t there when Gantt bought the car,” he said.

Gantt said the dealership is making excuses, adding that the car may have been wrecked before he bought it.

He said that after he received registration papers showing that the car was used, he looked closely and found that the paint on the right front fender did not match the paint on the rest of the car.

Dealer Denies Damage

Stitz said Prince Pontiac agreed to repaint the fender at no charge but denied that the car had been in an accident or damaged before it was sold to Gantt.

On Oct. 25, Prince obtained a temporary restraining order against Gantt’s picketing.

“I stopped because I made my point. I got media coverage,” Gantt said, referring to two Channel 2 television news stories about his complaint.

Stitz said that on Nov. 1, “in the spirit of compromise,” the dealership offered Gantt a replacement 1987 Pontiac and offered to drop the lawsuit. Gantt refused.

“If they had made the offer before the media got involved on the 25th, I think I would have accepted,” Gantt said. “They only offered me a car to stop the picketing. They said that if you just keep your mouth shut, we’ll give you this new car, and under those conditions I didn’t want to accept it.”

Gantt, who works nights as an electronics technician, said he is planning his own suit against Prince Pontiac. No trial date has been set for the dealership’s suit.