Sick Of Waiting: Elio Motors Trike “owners” Start Filing Lawsuits

[larryboy]

In my heart I still hope to get the email that says send balance due pick up your ELIO. My intellect says ain't going to happen anymore.
Just a couple weeks ago Polaris shut Victory motorcycle . No warning locked it up. Heck dealers were still selling them like nothing happened . Motley fool for some time now has said Victory would out Harley in it's grave. If Victory can't make it with the money of Polaris behind it and the experience people they have. Some say the Sling Shot is next. What chance do others have in these industries. I of course had no love for Victory myself so I lost no sleep over it.
EILO has no idea when production will start. They throw stuff out. But to this day have not done anything when they said they would.
Had gas prices gone up to $10 dollars a gallon. Maybe they could have pulled it off. They still have a few lights on at ELIO, but not much going on and no products date.
I signed the commitment to purchase . I also knew that was likely their last hail Mary to shore up finances. It had no effect.
PE keep swing, good luck. Facing facts is how you move on in life. Dreaming is something you do over a cup of coffee. Nothing wrong with a little dreaming. Just come back to the real world now before it gets to foggy.

Victory motorcycles and the Slingshot appeal to vastly different markets. Everyone can drive an Elio in any weather and almost anyone who is currently driving a car can afford one. Smitty, I like some of your posts and admire and respect you for your service. I cannot help but think how different our history might have been if your ancestors would have been in the service in years past.

"I don't know General Washington, its dark and the river is pretty wide and cold"
"General Grant, you may intend to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer but I am going home as soon as my enlistment is over"
"You expect us to climb San Juan hill in these hot wool uniforms?"
"Well, yes Sgt. Daily, I do intend to live forever!"
"I'll praise the Lord and pass the ammunition but I think we are screwed! The Japs sank all our battleships!"

Now I will admit that your ancestors might have had the right idea in all the wars we have been in since WWII but perhaps a little more positive thinking might have made a difference there too.

 

[NSTG8R]

Victory motorcycles and the Slingshot appeal to vastly different markets. Everyone can drive an Elio in any weather and almost anyone who is currently driving a car can afford one. Smitty, I like some of your posts and admire and respect you for your service. I cannot help but think how different our history might have been if your ancestors would have been in the service in years past.

"I don't know General Washington, its dark and the river is pretty wide and cold"
"General Grant, you may intend to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer but I am going home as soon as my enlistment is over"
"You expect us to climb San Juan hill in these hot wool uniforms?"
"Well, yes Sgt. Daily, I do intend to live forever!"
"I'll praise the Lord and pass the ammunition but I think we are screwed! The Japs sank all our battleships!"

Now I will admit that your ancestors might have had the right idea in all the wars we have been in since WWII but perhaps a little more positive thinking might have made a difference there too.

 

[Coss]

In my heart I still hope to get the email that says send balance due pick up your ELIO. My intellect says ain't going to happen anymore.
Just a couple weeks ago Polaris shut Victory motorcycle . No warning locked it up. Heck dealers were still selling them like nothing happened . Motley fool for some time now has said Victory would out Harley in it's grave. If Victory can't make it with the money of Polaris behind it and the experience people they have. Some say the Sling Shot is next. What chance do others have in these industries. I of course had no love for Victory myself so I lost no sleep over it.
EILO has no idea when production will start. They throw stuff out. But to this day have not done anything when they said they would.
Had gas prices gone up to $10 dollars a gallon. Maybe they could have pulled it off. They still have a few lights on at ELIO, but not much going on and no products date.
I signed the commitment to purchase . I also knew that was likely their last hail Mary to shore up finances. It had no effect.
PE keep swing, good luck. Facing facts is how you move on in life. Dreaming is something you do over a cup of coffee. Nothing wrong with a little dreaming. Just come back to the real world now before it gets to foggy.

"....... Just a couple weeks ago Polaris shut Victory motorcycle . No warning locked it up....." wrong; Polaris announced 8 months ago that it was closing Victory and was going to concentrate on Indian and Slingshot. They knew it was coming.
Polaris has said that they are working on the Slingshot for new models, including an enclosed model. No announcement when that would be.
Also look for a number of advancements and model changes in the Indian lineup.
And I believe Elio is doing much better than you think; since they have gone to selling shares in the company, they lawyers have pretty much put a gag order on them for want they can and can't announce; but behind the "curtain" there are a number of things going on.

 

[Ekh]

The link to all the details is in that article.
I realize you probably got your terms mixed up...
But last I heard the plaintiff doesn't do the defending.

Here a couple of the details revealed at that link. All-in for $1K.
Small claims in his state against Elio Motor's agent in that state.
No lawyer. And you don't have to have legal grounds to bring a case.
When you do, it's up to the defendant to show up and prove you wrong.
This is civil court, not criminal court.

You have to consider that it's like disclaimers.
Just because you put them up at your place of business...
Doesn't mean they're always worth the paper they're printed on...
It all depends on the Federal, State and Local laws in your area.
And... How those good ol' boys want to interpret them.

You'd be surprised to see what some down-home JPs come up with.
I wouldn't be as confident and dismissive as you are if I were EM.
I don't think it'll go anywhere either, but if I were Elio Motors...
I'd have someone there. JPs have a nasty tendency...
To award the plaintiff if the defendant is a no show.

I did write in a hurry, and I haven't gone through the details of this fellow's suit. I have, however, been in more litigation than I like, both as plaintiff and as defendant, with a 100% win record in small claims, county, and appellate court. While you are correct that anybody can sue anybody for anything, especially in small claims court, most magistrates (who in Ohio handle small claims) don't like having their time wasted and make short order of extremely frivolous suits. Justices are even quicker to dismiss time-wasters.

In general, to win as a plaintiff you must prove that the offending party has actually harmed you in monetary or other clearly tortuous ways. (Tortuous means "in ways that cause personal harm"). In suing Elio for breach of contract, it's possible that some magistrate might hear the case -- but impossible to prove actual harm, because the contract is so clear that the buyer assumes all risk.

My guess is that should any court actually rule against Elio, you would suddenly see a serious legal team getting into it -- and unless the plaintiff is a walking gold mine, it will hurt him far more than it hurts Elio to get rid of this matter. Elio would probably be advised NOT to settle, unless it did so with a non-disclosure agreement, because of the precedent that would be set.

There may be special circumstances that apply, but in general this suit is a non-starter and any lawyer would advise this guy not to waste his money pursuing it.

I can tell you from personal experience that litigation is really not a process you want to undertake if it can be avoided. Nobody wins except the lawyers.

 

[Coss]

I did write in a hurry, and I haven't gone through the details of this fellow's suit. I have, however, been in more litigation than I like, both as plaintiff and as defendant, with a 100% win record in small claims, county, and appellate court. While you are correct that anybody can sue anybody for anything, especially in small claims court, most magistrates (who in Ohio handle small claims) don't like having their time wasted and make short order of extremely frivolous suits. Justices are even quicker to dismiss time-wasters.

In general, to win as a plaintiff you must prove that the offending party has actually harmed you in monetary or other clearly tortuous ways. (Tortuous means "in ways that cause personal harm"). In suing Elio for breach of contract, it's possible that some magistrate might hear the case -- but impossible to prove actual harm, because the contract is so clear that the buyer assumes all risk.

My guess is that should any court actually rule against Elio, you would suddenly see a serious legal team getting into it -- and unless the plaintiff is a walking gold mine, it will hurt him far more than it hurts Elio to get rid of this matter. Elio would probably be advised NOT to settle, unless it did so with a non-disclosure agreement, because of the precedent that would be set.

There may be special circumstances that apply, but in general this suit is a non-starter and any lawyer would advise this guy not to waste his money pursuing it.

I can tell you from personal experience that litigation is really not a process you want to undertake if it can be avoided. Nobody wins except the lawyers.

Thank you EKH, once again the life raft voice of reason in the sea of chaos.
I had a feeling this guy is really going to end up losing more than he could ever possibly gain. He's already going backwards because he had to pay a fee to file the case; so now he's out the deposit plus the fee, plus all the time he's had to spend doing this; and "on your own time" is worth something unless you value yourself as nothing.

 

[Ty]

Now isn't exactly the right time to sue. It isn't like Elio hasn't delivered his Elio when promised. They still have time on their side. I suppose he could say there was some kind of implied timeline but I don't think that kind of thing stands up in court very much. Did he have the reasonable expectation of receiving his Elio by now? Maybe. But, then again, Elio was quite specific in their whole contract stating that you may or may not receive an Elio that may or may not be like the current model and may or may not get the mileage...etc...

Sweep the leg! (He doesn't have one to stand on in my opinion)