10:04 am, October 21, 2022
A luxury car dealership has lost a High Court appeal over a Mercedes supercar it sold that flooded inside and wrecked the electrics.
GVE London, which is based in Uxbridge, sold the AMG GTC Roadster to dressage rider Alison Kynaston-Mainwaring in August 2018 for £122,000, reported The Sun.
She then kept it in a modified garage, but when she left it outside for a few days in November 2019, she discovered that the footwell was full of rainwater.
The leak – described in court as ‘catastrophic’ – also damaged wiring and electrical components, with experts saying that had reduced the value of the convertible to about £8,500.
The 49-year-old, who – with her husband – owns the Shropshire-based Hardwick Hall estate, sued GVE London in March this year at the High Court in Manchester and won her case, with Judge Richard Pearce awarding her £118,334 – the amount she had paid less £5,000 for use plus £1,334 in damages.
The dealership had claimed the problem was caused by a Mercedes-Benz dealer not clearing a drainage channel when servicing the Mercedes before the car was delivered to Kynaston-Mainwaring.
But Judge Pearce said it was standard practice to clear the channel, meaning it was more likely that it had been done, therefore the car couldn’t have been ‘of satisfactory quality.’
GVE London tried to get the decision overturned, arguing that the judge’s reasoning was ‘flawed’ as well as being ‘to some extent speculation’.
But at the Court of Appeal, Lord Justice Phillips ruled in favour of Kynaston-Mainwaring, saying that although the claim by GVE was ‘plausible’, it wasn’t strong enough to merit the judge’s decision being overturned.
He added that there was nothing to suggest there was an inherent design problem with the model.
Lords Justices Snowden and Green agreed with him and together they dismissed GVE London’s appeal.
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