PITTSBURGH – A Wexford man claims Tesla Motors violated both federal and state laws when it sold him a new vehicle he alleges contained a number of irreparable defects.
Michael T. Derzack first filed suit in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas on May 12 versus Tesla Motors, Inc. of Palo Alto, Calif. The case was later removed to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on June 29.
According to the lawsuit, on Dec. 9, 2015, the plaintiff purchased a new 2015 Tesla S P85D, manufactured and warranted by the defendant, purchased in Ohio and registered in Pennsylvania. The price of the vehicle was in excess of $125,700.00, including registration charges, document fees, sales tax, finance and bank charges, but excluding other collateral charges not specified yet defined by the Lemon Law.
Derzack was provided a four-year, 50,000-mile warranty for the vehicle, but discovered the vehicle’s defects included noise in the front right door panel when closing, driver’s assist unavailable message displayed on dashboard with the autopilot features not available, long crank-time, noise from the passenger side window at highway speeds, the information display cluster taking too long to boot up, the vehicle not always unlocking when approaching and a noisy passenger door.
Derzack continued the defendant’s authorized dealer had made four attempts to comply with its warranty, but the attempts at correcting the aforementioned problems were ineffective.
For alleged violations of the Pennsylvania Lemon Law, Magnuson-Moss Warranty Improvement Act and Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL), the plaintiff is seeking damages in an amount in excess of $35,000, plus all collateral charges, attorney’s fees, court costs and treble damages.
The plaintiff is represented by Robert A. Rapkin of Kimmel & Silverman in Ambler and Chad P. Doman of the Lindsay Law Firm, in Butler.
The defendant is represented by Leland I. Kellner of Lavin O’Neil Ricci Cedrone & DeSipio, in Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case 2:17-cv-00865
Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas case GD 17-007362
From the Pennsylvania Record: Reach Courts Reporter Nicholas Malfitano at nickpennrecord@gmail.com