Sailor wins $7,500 settlement after his car was towed and auctioned off while deployed
The Department of Justice announced that Navy Lt. Jonathan Liongson would receive the money as part of a settlement with Tony's Auto Center, based in Chula Vista, California over violations of the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, or SCRA.
Liongson was stationed at Naval Base San Diego when he parked his 2011 Mazda 6 at a friend's house before heading off on a deployment with the USS Bunker Hill in November 2022. While he was abroad, Tony's Auto Center towed the car, and sold it at an auction two months later.
According to the federal complaint, on Dec. 6, 2022, the Chula Vista Police Department impounded Liongson's car because of an expired registration and had Tony's Auto tow it to their facility. Tony's Auto obtained Liongson's registration and information about his loan through the Navy Federal Credit Union.
Nearly a week later, Tony's Auto had a contractor mail Liongson notice of their intent to sell his car but he did not receive it because he was aboard the USS Bunker Hill and lived at an address different from the car's registration. In February, the contractor sold the car at auction for around $1,200. Liongson returned home in March, to find that his car was towed and sold.
'While Lieutenant Liongson was at sea, he understood that his ship's mission and the duration of their deployment could change at any moment,' U.S. attorney Adam Gordon for the Southern District of California said in a DOJ release. 'He accepted that reality in the fulfillment of his solemn oath. In turn, the SCRA provides grace and understanding about certain personal affairs.'
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act gives troops serving on active duty orders protections under legal and financial agreements like rental leases, security deposits, eviction, credit card interest rates, vehicle leases and mortgage foreclosures. DOJ officials argued that the business violated the law because they sold the sailor's car without obtaining a court order which was required under the SCRA.
In their federal complaint, the DOJ argued that the lienholders failed to consult a free Department of Defense database to check for SCRA-protected servicemembers nor did Tony's Auto policies and practices include using commercial databases to match vehicle and customer information before selling them without court orders.
Under the settlement, the federal government will receive a $2,000 civil penalty and Tony's Auto Center will have to ensure that its third-party contractors receive proper SCRA training, according to court documents.
'Members of our armed forces should not have to worry about their cars being auctioned off while they are deployed,' assistant attorney general Harmeet Dhillon said in the DOJ release. 'This settlement should send a strong message to other towing companies that they should not take advantage of our servicemembers while they are keeping Americans safe.'
Since 2011, more than 147,000 service members have received over $481 million in financial settlements through SCRA enforcement, according to the DOJ.
The USS Bunker Hill was a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser that was part of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group which deployed to the Pacific region in November 2022. In September 2023, the USS Bunker Hill was decommissioned.
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