Millennium Jaguar Files Suit Against Manufacturer

DALLAS, Aug. 28, 2009 -- One of the nation's top performing Jaguar dealerships has asked a court to settle a dispute with Jaguar Land Rover over disputed manufacturer charges for the Plano, Texas, dealership.

Attorneys from the Dallas law firm of Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, who represent Millennium Jaguar of Texas Inc., dba Millennium Motor Cars, filed suit earlier this month against Jaguar Land Rover North America LLC and three of the dealership's former employees. The Millennium lawsuit claims the former employees concealed information and misstated performance statistics. The employees involved were either terminated or resigned.

Jaguar Land Rover ordered a full audit of Millennium's warranty and sales-incentive records and subsequently made demands that Millennium pay Jaguar Land Rover more than $600,000. Following Millennium's internal investigation of Jaguar Land Rover's claims, Millennium made a good faith payment of nearly $100,000 related to paperwork errors, along with a request for further investigation into the remaining amount Jaguar Land Rover claims is owed. The problems were limited to internal warranty and sales-incentive paperwork and invoices, and at no time were customers charged for unnecessary or unperformed warranty repairs or service.

However, the lawsuit states Jaguar Land Rover refused to provide the dealership with all information that it uncovered in the course of its audit. According to Millennium Jaguar of Texas Inc., despite repeated requests, Jaguar Land Rover senior management has refused to reveal all the facts on which the audit was based.

"Millennium owner David Stephens has made a career out of doing the right thing, and as a result has been recognized for his ethics and business practices alike. He has proven this again by taking the remedial action of voluntarily refunding the money believed to be rightfully owed to the manufacturer," says Millennium's attorney Brian Melton, a partner in Shackelford Melton & McKinley. "Based on what Jaguar Land Rover has provided to us, most of their findings are related to superficial paperwork problems. We are extremely confident that a complete examination of the facts will vindicate David Stephens and the Millennium dealership."

This week, Jaguar Land Rover filed its own lawsuit in response to the matter. That case is pending in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Millennium was the first African American-owned Jaguar dealership in the United States, and ranked in the top four for new car sales of all U.S. Jaguar dealerships in July 2009. The dealership also ranked number one in customer satisfaction in 2006 and has been a consistent award-winning sales and service performer during its more than 10 years in business.

Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, LLP, is a business and commercial law firm representing financial institutions, real estate owners and developers, automobile dealerships, and businesses in legal matters across the country. The firm's attorneys offer a wide range of specialized experience reflecting the increasingly complex legal, financial and social environments confronted by their clients. Learn more about the firm at www.shacklaw.net.

For more information, please contact Mike Androvett at 800-559-4534 or mike@androvett.com.