San Joaquin County Superior Court Preliminarily Approves Class Action
We are pleased to announce that Judge Carter Holly of the San Joaquin County
Superior Court has preliminarily approved the settlement of a class action lawsuit against
finance company WFS Financial Inc for alleged unlawful business practices.
After WFS Financial repossessed his car, the class representative, Jose F. de la Cruz of San Jose, claimed that WFS sent him a Notice that it intended to sell his car that did
not meet the requirements of California law. Then, after it sold the car and applied the
proceeds to pay down his contract balance, WFS tried to collect the deficiency from him. The
deficiency is the amount remaining due on the contract after the sale proceeds from
a foreclosure are applied to pay down the amount owed. Because Mr. de la Cruz claimed
that California consumers are not liable for any deficiency if the post-repossession Notice
does not exactly comply with California statutes, Mr. de la Cruz alleged that WFS’s
attempts to collect from him and other California consumers who received the same form
of Notice were unlawful.
Consumers who received the same form of Notice that Mr. de la Cruz received
and who made deficiency payments to WFS will receive all their money back if the
settlement is finally approved. In addition, WFS will cancel the deficiency obligations of
consumers who received that form of Notice, and will instruct credit reporting agencies to
delete WFS’s tradeline from their credit records.
WFS Financial denies that its Notices did not comply with California law, and
denies any liability, but agreed to the settlement solely to resolve the litigation.
Class members will receive direct mail notice of the settlement and their
opportunity to participate or object.
Judge Holly will conduct a hearing to determine whether to finally approve the settlement on October 9, 2007 at 10:00 a.m at the San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton. Carol McLean Brewer and Andrew Ogilvie of our law firm represent the class
