Lender sues Boston, tow company and RMV for the way a seized car it was still owed payments on was sold off

An Illinois lender yesterday sued the city of Boston, a Charlestown towing company and the Registry of Motor Vehicles over the way Boston lets tow companies not just seize cars on the order of Boston Police but sell them off without giving lenders the chance to get the car back first, which it charges is a violation of several of its constitutional rights

In its lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Santander said this violated its due process rights and that Boston should have stopped the practice several years ago, after a federal judge in Boston ruled against Revere and ordered the city to reimburse a lender for the Honda it let a tow company take away and then sell for violating the lender's due-process rights.

Santander included RMV Registrar Colleen Olgivie because the registry approves the title transfers required for the tow companies to sell off the vehicles.

In the Santander case, the lender was still owed payments on a 2017 Acadia that Boston Police ordered seized in November, 2021, which Santander says gave it a "first priority" lien on the vehicle. The lawsuit does not say why the vehicle was seized, but police typically order vehicles taken in both criminal cases and for serious parking infractions, such as blocking hydrants.

Santander alleges that Boston has an agreement with Cityside Enterprises and other tow companies under which the companies take full responsibility for seized vehicles - which lets them begin charging storage payments and, eventually selling off the vehicle completely, which it said happened in the case of the Acadia - leaving Santander with nothing.

Santander charges that, in addition to not applying for a warrant to seize the Acadia, police never notified the company of the seizure. It said the first it heard of problems with the loan was when it got a letter on Dec. 15, 2021 from the city that the vehicle had been seized and that Santander had to pay $1,745,33 to CitySide to get it back.

Santander said it immediately demanded CitySide release the car to it, but that CitySide eventually responded it was keeping the SUV unless Santander forked over storage and interest, which had ballooned to $5,845.33. Santander said it refused to pay and CitySide sold the SUV - and kept all the proceeds.

At no time was Santander afforded notice, a hearing, or just compensation for Boston's deprivation of Santander's right in its collateral. ...

There is no law which requires Santander to pay Boston's towing and storage bill for Cityside's alleged services, or to comply with the other conditions placed by Defendants on the release of the Vehicle.

The Vehicle was not "abandoned," as Cityside's letters claimed, under any definition of the word.

The company continued that even if the seizure and sale complied with state laws, which it insists it did not, the practice is illegal, as shown in the Revere case.

As the [federal court in Massachusetts] had already held prior to Boston and Cityside's actions as to the Vehicle, the sale of a seized vehicle by a municipal towing contractor without any form or constitutionally adequate notice or any opportunity for a hearing for a lienholder prior to the sale of an unclaimed vehicle is unconstitutional.

Santander is seeking the return of the SUV, along with damages and attorney's fees, as well as an order requiring Boston, Cityside and the RMV to knock it off.