Lemon Law Lawyer Blog

On January 1, 2008, SB 234 (Corbett) will go into effect. This bill, which California Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger signed on July 27, 2007, will extend California Lemon Law Protection to all military personnel stationed in California, regardless of where they purchased their lemon.

McCoy, Turnage & Robertson law partner Ellen Turnage represented Lt. Nathan Kindig in the Lemon Law case that brought this issue to the attention of the California legislature. Lt. Kindig’s case was especially sympathetic as evidenced by Ms. Turnage’s testimony to the California State Senate Judiciary Committee. I have endeavored to summarize her testimony here:

Any one who purchases and takes delivery of a vehicle within the state of California is protected by California’s lemon law, a very consumer friendly statute. However, buyers, including California residents, who purchase vehicles in other states – even though they register the vehicles in California and pay California sales tax – are not protected by the California Lemon Law. These California citizens do not realize they are not protected by California Lemon Law until they discover they are the proud owners of a lemon.

But even worse is the fact that our military personnel who are not California residents and who purchased vehicles in other states are excluded from California lemon law protection. The tragedy is that these individuals are not here voluntarily. They are ordered to this state for the purpose of protecting this state and our nation. And yet, our California Lemon Laws fail to protect them. They are in essence individuals without a state.

Let me see if I can demonstrate how our laws fail to protect our military by describing Lt. Kindig’s pending lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler.

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