Auto Finance Case Going to Supreme Court

Just about the only thing Bradley C. Nigh and Michael Field agree on is that what started out in February 2000 as an ordinary used-car deal went quickly — and badly — awry.

As Nigh tells it, the trouble began shortly after he drove a 1997 Chevy Blazer home from Koons Buick Pontiac GMC in Alexandria. The dealership, he says, promptly reneged on the deal, threatening him with the loss of his car or even criminal prosecution unless he coughed up a higher down payment.

To Field, who owns the dealership, it was a case of no good deed going unpunished. His sales team, he says, tried repeatedly to meet an inexperienced customer’s credit needs, only to have him back out of the deal and file a lawsuit.

Tomorrow, this bitter local dispute will reach the Supreme Court, shining a light on the car business in the Washington area and, potentially, altering the balance of power nationwide between those who sell and those who buy autos.

At issue in the case, Koons v. Nigh, No. 03-377, is how much money consumers are entitled to when, as in Nigh’s case, a jury finds that a dealer has violated the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA). Car dealers are affected by the law because most of their sales are financed by loans. Nigh maintains that TILA authorizes damages up to double the finance charges — in his case the $24,192.80 a jury awarded him. Koons says the law caps damages at $1,000.

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