When Yonkers police seized a car for unpaid parking tickets in January, it was taking on not only the car owner, but the company that financed the vehicle.
Santander Consumer USA sued the city, A.P.O.W. Towing and owner Harold Wuestenhoeffer on June 15 in U.S. District Court in White Plains accusing them of illegally seizing the vehicle to collect unwarranted fees.
“Yonkers and APOW routinely work in tandem to seize motor vehicles,” the complaint states, “as part of Yonkers”™ ill-advised and overly aggressive revenue-raising scheme relating to parking ticket enforcement.”
Wuestenhoeffer said “there”™s no nothing there,” in a brief telephone interview. “They just need to pay the towing and storage fees and pick up the vehicle and leave.”
Yonkers spokeswoman Christina Gilmartin said the “city cannot comment on pending litigation.”
Santander financed the 2017 Nissan Pathfinder for Kate A. Mensah in 2018. On Jan. 24, Yonkers police seized the vehicle where it was parked on a street, because of unpaid parking tickets. APOW towed the car to its yard.
Santander claims that neither Yonkers nor APOW notified the company about the seizure, and that it was notified a few days later by a vendor that monitors seizures.
APOW would not release the Pathfinder to Santander until Yonkers police gave its approval and all APOW fees were paid, according to the complaint, including a $85 tow prep fee, $100 winch fee, $150 for the tow and $35 a day for storage.
The charges totaled $5,375, when the lawsuit was filed.
Santander claims that Yonkers also demanded that all APOW fees be paid, that Mensah not be allowed to get the car back until she paid the tickets, and that the city and towing company be held harmless from liability.
“Yonkers and APOW leverage the hardship of seizure,” the lawsuit states, “to force payments for unadjudicated parking tickets and to force turnover of additional, un-owed monies ”¦ to Yonkers and APOW.”
Wuestenhoeffer said the lawsuit is filled with inaccurate information. Yonkers and APOW both notified Santander that the vehicle had been seized, for instance, and the car was not registered.
He said Mensah paid the city $1,300 to settle the parking tickets, but when she came to pick up the Pathfinder she wouldn”™t pay APOW”™s fees.
Santander holds a lien on the vehicle, the complaint states, and has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
The city and towing company needed a warrant, or a valid exception to a warrant, to seize the car, Santander attorney Nicholas A. Duston argues, and they failed to provide a procedure for challenging the legitimacy of the seizure before a neutral decisionmaker.
The finance company accuses Yonkers and APOW of violating federal and state constitutional due process protections, as well as conversion of property and deceptive practices. It is asking the court to declare that Yonkers and APOW had no right to detain the car and to order them to release the vehicle and relieve Santander of the towing fees.
Santander Consumer USA is based in Dallas and is affiliated with Banco Santander of Spain, which has a market capitalization of $40.8 billion.
“Everything they say in the lawsuit is untrue,” Wuestenhoeffer said. “It”™s like corporate bullying. Just because they”™re Santander, they don”™t have to pay their bills to pick up cars.”
