An Action 16 Investigation in 2010 focused on a local Volvo dealership accused of selling a wrecked car to an unsuspecting customer who thought the car was brand new.
When Brittany Tulaney of Taylor bought her car from Santo Volvo, the dealership never told her the car was wrecked by a Santo salesman, then had it rebuilt and sold as new, so Tulaney took the dealership to court.
Newswatch 16 confirms the two sides reached an out-of-court settlement.
In October 2010, Brittany Tulaney and her father Sarkis were livid. Illness forced Brittany to give up driving, so when she tried to get Santo Volvo to buy back the car she bought from them a year before, a car she thought was brand new, she and her father claim they found out the car had actually been wrecked before they bought it.
"I would never in a million years (have) bought the car in the first place, let alone pay the price he was asking. No way," said Brittany Tulaney in October 2010.
"It was fraud," added her father, Sarkis, at the time. "He fraudulently sold us the car."
Why fraud?
Newswatch 16 got a copy of the crash report which showed the car Brittany thought she bought as new, was actually wrecked in Scranton almost six months before she bought it.
The man who showed her the car, salesman Michael Curtis, was the same man who, according to that crash report, wrecked the Volvo. Scranton police arrested him on charges of driving drunk and possessing marijuana.
For the past year, the Tulaney's lawyer took depositions and built a case against the dealership.
In February, a civil court judge ruled Santo Volvo "...admitted (to a) violation of the New Motor Vehicle Damage Disclosure Act, and the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices Act."
The court ruled Brittany Tulaney was entitled to a judgement, and a couple of months later, Santo Volvo and the woman who bought a rebuilt wreck from the dealership, reached an out-of-court settlement.
Under the terms of the settlement, neither side is allowed to talk about case or reveal how much money Santo Volvo had to pay out.