In an unusual legal tussle over a car repossession, a Lima woman has taken control of a car dealership's trade name after they took back the vehicle she believed was hers. The Third District Court of Appeals recently directed that the dispute concerning the ownership of the name Taylor Kia of Lima should stay in trial court, instead of arbitration, which the dealership had sought.
Taylor Cadillac, along with its umbrella Taylor Automotive Group, operates multiple car dealerships in the Northwest Ohio area, expanding its brand to include Taylor Kia of Lima in 2012. In February 2024, one Tiah McCreary visited the dealership looking to drive away in a new vehicle. She found a 2022 Kia K5 to her liking and sat down with the finance manager, Justin Nance, who walked her through the paperwork. This included signing some documents electronically, notably, an agreement that any legal disputes would be settled through binding arbitration with Taylor Automotive Group, as cited by Court News Ohio.
The financing for McCreary's K5 was to be arranged through Global Lending Services (GLS), which gave a preliminary green light while McCreary was at the dealership. However, things didn't pan out as expected. GLS later pulled back, unable to finalize the loan due to insufficient information. A month into her new car experience, while McCreary was at work, her K5 was repossessed by Taylor Kia.
The court decision is a dent in the side of Taylor Automotive Group, which had preferred a private arbitration process to settle the matter. Instead, the court insists the rights to the dealership’s name taken by McCreary are a subject worth the scrutiny of a trial court. This ruling comes despite the Taylor group's attempt to keep the matter out of the public court system. Now, Taylor Kia of Lima must argue its case before a judge, and potentially a jury, in the full view of the local community, and perhaps to a wider audience as the case gains attention.
