Judge ‘suspicious’ of documents produced in car repair bill case

DOCUMENTS produced by Ballycarney car dealer Tom Kenny roused the suspicions of Judge Brian O’Shea during a Small Claims Court hearing over a troublesome BMW.

The case pitted Kenny, trading as TOC Car Sales, Craanrue, Ballycarney, against unhappy customer Michael Doyle, 8 Churchtown Court, Kilrane, Rosslare Harbour.

Doyle came to the court complex at Belvedere Road suing for €1,900 to pay for repairs to the timing chain of the 2011 registered car.

Also considered by the court was a counter-claim from Kenny seeking €1,972 to cover work on the gear-box.

The two men previously had dealings involving a Volkswagen Passat and Renault Laguna, both of which gave no problems.

Doyle then returned in December of 2018 and he picked out the BMW 520, which was priced at €14,000.

The deal was sealed with a draft for €10,500 and the trading in of an Opel Corsa.

The plaintiff said it was his understanding that the new purchase, which was registered to his wife Brónagh, came with a six-month warranty.

This covered work that had to be carried out on a cooling pipe and then on brake pads during the early months of 2019.

However, the dispute which led both parties to court arose after the car refused to budge in May of 2019 due to the gearbox problems.

The specialist work needed to put the car back on the road was carried out at Autotranz in Walkinstown, who were paid by Kenny with his credit card.

Doyle felt that this was covered by a sixmonth warranty he described as standard but it was TOC’s contention that in fact it only covered three months.

The judge agreed with the Ballycarney businessman that Doyle’s claim for the €1,900 it cost him to deal with the timing chain in August of 2019 should be dismissed as this was clearly outside the six-month limit.

However, the issue of who should meet the Autotranz bill for the gear-box still remained to be decided by the court.

TOC solicitor Gerry Flynn produced copies of documents which came from the files of his client and handed them to Doyle.

These documents included a sales agreement which appeared to show that the warranty was for three months.

There was also a certificate showing transfer of ownership from the BMW’s previous owner to Brónagh Doyle.

The third document related to a vehicle provenance search disclosing that the Dublin registered vehicle had been involved in a crash

‘If I had known it was a crashed car, I would not have gone near it,’ commented Michael Doyle.

All three pieces of paper featured a signature which purported to be that of the new owner, the wife of the witness.

Doyle’s reaction was that he had not been told anything about previous damage and that he was the one who conducted the deal with TOC.

He added that he did not think that the signature on the sales agreement was his wife’s writing.

As she was present in court, she was called up to the witness box and handed the three documents.

Her response was to point out that her name is Brónagh and not Brona as written on the documents.

The judge asked the court clerk to pass the unexpected witness a piece of paper and a pen, asking her to sign her name five times quickly.

At his suggestion, she also produced her driving licence from her handbag which was inspected by the court.

At this point in the hearing, the judge decided to rise for five minutes to give Mr Flynn an opportunity to consult with his client.

When the hearing resumed, Brónagh Doyle confirmed that she had not signed the documents and the solicitor had no questions to ask her in cross-examination.

It was then the turn of Tom Kenny to enter the witness box, telling the judge he had 40 years experience in the motor trade.

He said he had no recollection of being with Ms Doyle or of seeing her signing any of the three documents.

His evidence was that he did all the business with the husband and not the wife.

He insisted that the warranty was for three months, not six.

Before the verdict was delivered, Mr Flynn said it was not his place to speculate and added that he was not a handwriting expert.

Judge O’Shea dismissed the dealer’s claim for the cost of the gear-box repairs, saying that he was ‘more than suspicious’ of the documents handed into the court.

He was satisfied that the new registered owner of the car did not sign the paperwork tendered by the counter-claimant.

The signature did not accord with that which Ms Doyle wrote in court or with that which appeared on her driving licence.

The fada accent which she used consistently over the O in her forename was missing, as was the GH at the end.

‘ To say I am suspicious is an under-statement,’ he concluded.

More than likely, the warranty was for six months, the court ruled, dismissing the counter-claim.