A judicial lesson in greed: Capital car agency tried to transfer a parking fine to a buyer without success A car dealer in Moscow found himself in a comical and at the same time revealing situation due to the desire to save on small things. Instead of paying the standard fine for free parking on its own, the company initiated legal proceedings in an attempt to transfer financial responsibility to a potential customer.
The incident began when a traffic camera recorded a car belonging to a car agency that was left in the parking lot without paying a toll. Instead of settling the issue, the company's internal lawyers decided to use the test drive agreement, and stated in court that the car at the time the violation was recorded was allegedly being used by a customer who wanted to evaluate the model on the road. Such an approach of a large commercial structure operating with millions of dollars only causes bewilderment: suing for a nominal amount, risking its reputation and trying to incriminate a person who is considering buying a car, seems patently ridiculous. The court, as expected, defended common sense and the law, and pointed out to the representatives of the car agency the obvious gaps in their position. A typical test drive agreement by itself does not prove that the buyer was driving at that moment. Where is the correctly issued MTPL policy with driver details entered? Where is the detailed acceptance and transfer certificate of the vehicle with time registration up to the minute? And most importantly, where are the guarantees that the salon manager himself did not go to drink coffee in the same car? The prosecutor had no convincing evidence.
As a result, the car dealership was left with nothing: the company had to not only pay the initial fine, but also bear the costs for the lawyers' working hours, as well as spend resources on an obviously lost process.