Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will pay $127,000 in settlement of a lemon-lawsuit to a Wisconsin doctor, Franklin physician Robert Montgomery. The doctor accused the EV manufacturer of selling defective car to him.
First-lemon law claim against Tesla Motors
Montgomery, in April, said that Model S, he bought was in the shop for more than 30 days with many defects. Attorney Vince Megna, who is self-proclaimed ‘lemon law king,’ was Montgomery’s attorney for the case filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court.
According to the court records, the case was shifted to the federal court in May, and both the sides agreed to reach a settlement in June following which the judge dismissed the case. Megna states that it was the first settlement of lemon law claim against the California-based automaker.
The case caught the eyes not just because it involves the luxury EV automaker, but also for the reason that Tesla criticized the owner personally in its blog for filing a lemon law case. However, on Monday, Tesla spokeswoman Liz Jarvis-Shean said, “We consider this case to be closed.”
Blame game
Montgomery listed the problems in the car like it didn’t turn on, the transmission would not shift into drive, the door handles failed sometimes and battery cooling system did not work. He said that Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) did not setup any repair facility in Wisconsin, which means the Model S has to be taken to Chicago every time it encountered a problem.
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) kept itself from commenting initially, but later in a blog, accused the owner of meddling with the car and in turn causing some defects. The blog read that Tesla service team did everything possible to get rid of the defects and help the doctor especially, when the fuse blew three-times. Every time Tesla engineers failed at locating the exact problem.
The EV manufacturer mentioned that when the fuse blew three-times even after the new parts, and upon diagnosis nothing wrong could be located; the engineers stated that the fuse has been tempered with.
“After investigating, they determined that the car’s front trunk had been opened immediately before the fuse failure on each of the three occasions.” After diagnosis, Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) engineers applied non-tamper tape to the fuse switch after which the fuse performed impeccably. However, Megna strongly denied of any tampering.
