Family sues Tri-Cities car dealership. Claims it preyed on disabled man in $50,000+ deal

A disabled man living on a low, fixed income with no bank account walked into a Tri-Cities car dealership in June 2021.

He drove off in a used Toyota RAV4 after signing a sales agreement packed with dealer add-ons to bring the cost to nearly $54,000, according to a lawsuit filed in Benton County Superior Court.

The lawsuit also claims that Toyota of Tri-Cities in Kennewick, committed loan fraud to get Brian Hoffman, 63, financing for the used 2021 SUV.

And it wasn’t the only local dealership that tried to sell Hoffman a car, despite it being “plainly evident to anyone who interacts with him even for a short period of time” that he is fully disabled, according to the lawsuit filed by his sister.

Within months of getting the SUV, Hoffman thought he should have a different car and tried to trade it in.

Other Tri-Cities car dealerships tried unsuccessfully to arrange a loan to sell him another car, according to the lawsuit.

Just one dealership reached out to his family or caseworker to check if Hoffman should be buying a car.

Hoffman’s purchase of the SUV prompted his sister, Lisa Nealey of Redmond, Wash., to become his full guardian, over his strong objections.

Hoffman, who has schizophrenia, has never had a job and before June 2021 was living on Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income totaling $814 a month.

In June 2021, he was awarded a benefit from the Railroad Retirement Board because his late mother had worked for Burlington Northern and he had become disabled before he was 21. His monthly income, increased to $1,664.

His checks were sent directly to Lourdes Counseling Center, which helped Hoffman manage his finances.

But he also received a windfall in June as the Railroad Retirement Board paid his monthly benefits retroactive to when Lourdes helped him apply for them two years earlier.

The check for $22,295 was sent directly to Hoffman, rather than Lourdes.

Dealership arranges down payment

As soon as the check arrived, Hoffman walked from the housing program where he then lived in Kennewick to the closest car dealership, Toyota of Tri-Cities, on Canal Drive.

He showed the check to dealership employees and a salesman wasted no time in showing Hoffman the Toyota RAV4, according to lawsuit.

Neither the salesman nor “any other employee at the dealership was concerned with Hoffman’s mental or emotional status,” claims the suit. “They were focused almost entirely on the big check Brian showed off to them all.”

That’s despite Hoffman’s disorganized speech patterns, adding random clusters of words to sentences, laughing inappropriately and often interrupting himself and others to to talk about unrelated topics.

He appears to stare through the person he is speaking with and often addresses them by both their first and last names.

His hygiene is lacking and he has lost most of his teeth from the side effects of the medications he needs, according to a court document.

Nealey told the Herald that the right thing for Toyota of Tri-Cities to do would have been to track down a responsible party to help Hoffman with the car purchase.

Deborah Purcell, the Seattle attorney representing Toyota of Tri-Cities and other defendants in the case, did not return calls this week about the allegations.

Nealey’s suit claims the Toyota salesman drove Hoffman to HAPO Community Credit Union, where he helped Hoffman open a new account and deposit the $22,295.

Hoffman obtained a cashier’s check for $15,000 — more than two-thirds the amount of his disability check — as a down payment for the SUV, according the suit.

Hoffman paid nearly 35% of the cash price of the car as a down payment. A standard down payment is about 10% of the cost of a used car, says the suit.

Nealey’s attorney Eugene Bolin of Edmonds, Wash., alleges that the dealership arranged such a large payment upfront because it knew that Hoffman would likely default on the loan.

Lawsuit claims dealer falsified info

The dealership created two different sales contracts for the purchase of the car, one that it gave to Hoffman and the other for Toyota Motor Credit Corp. They differed in the after-market products added to the sales contract.

The lawsuit alleges the products Hoffman was charged for were not requested or needed.

A service contract, a maintenance contract, a protective coating for the SUV’s paint, a windshield repair contract, and a tire and wheel contract added about $7,300 to the price.

His monthly payment for six years came to $535, and he also had a car insurance payment of $121 a month, leaving him just $1,000 from his fixed income for other living expenses.

His sister obtained three credit applications that the dealership used to find financing for the deal, claiming all three falsified information.

Gesa Credit Union and Idaho Central Credit Union turned down the applications, with Gesa noting that his income was too low for the amount of credit requested.

But Toyota Financial Services approved an application that said he was retired, had worked 10 years at his current job, had a gross monthly income of $2,350 and paid no rent, all of which was incorrect, according to Nealey. Hoffman paid $500 a month for rent.

According to the suit, Hoffman would not have been able to open a bank account or understand how to buy a car, without the help of the salesman, or to understand concepts of credit enough to defraud a bank.

“The dealership fabricated all this information to obtain financing for the sale,” the lawsuit alleges.

Disabled man can’t make payments

After the sale, Hoffman obtained a cashier’s check for the first monthly car payment of $536, but then he signed it over to himself and spent it on something else.

Within weeks he had spent the entire windfall check, leaving nothing set aside for rent or other bills.

His sister made the first two monthly payments on the SUV.

Hoffman returned to Toyota of Tri-Cities and asked his salesman for gas money for the car he bought two months earlier.

Nealey travels to the Tri-Cities monthly to help her brother and frequently works with his case manager.

But when he bought the SUV, Nealey was on vacation.

She learned of the purchase only when her cousin who lives in the Tri-Cities sent her a text saying her brother was driving what looked to be a new car.

She contacted Toyota of Tri-Cities and told it the information on the credit applications was false and asked the dealership to rescind the deal.

“The dealership declined to provide any assistance whatsoever,” the lawsuit said.

After multiple calls by Nealey, the dealership offered to take back the RAV4 but only in trade for another vehicle, which Nealey saw as an attempt to make more money since Hoffman would have to pay off the balance before buying another car from the dealership.

Nealey filed complaints with the Kennewick Police Department and the Washington state Attorney General’s Office, before filing a lawsuit.

She said she likely would not have filed the suit if Toyota of Tri-Cities had sold him a vehicle that was affordable on his income.

Before getting the SUV he was a regular rider on Ben Franklin Transit.

“It worked fine,” she said. Bus drivers and others in the community know him and were friendly with him, and one bakery would give him food. He had a driver’s license, after trying for years to pass the test, she said.

Shopping for another car

After driving the SUV for a few months Hoffman because fixated on the idea that he had bought the wrong car and tried to trade it in at other Tri-Cities dealerships, according to court documents.

A saleswoman at McCurley Integrity Subaru in Pasco called Nealey after Hoffman tried to trade in the SUV there, concerned that she saw “multiple red flags.”

He had called from a motel, where he was then living, and when he came into the dealership he could not maintain a conversation. He appeared to be struggling emotionally and mentally, the saleswoman told Nealey.

After the phone call, the saleswoman declined to do business with him.

However, McCurley Integrity Honda leased Hoffman a new vehicle and Nealey saw a photo posted on the dealership’s Facebook page.

When Nealey called the dealership, it immediately agreed to rescind the deal.

The general manager said that when he saw the unclean condition of the SUV Hoffman traded in, he wanted to immediately reclaim the Honda to avoid damage to it.

Hoffman also tried to make deals at three other dealerships. One made 12 credit applications with none of them approved even with the trade-in and a false claim that he could put down $3,000 in addition, according to the lawsuit.

At Corwin Ford a credit application was approved that gave Hoffman’s home and employment phone number as the salesman’s side business, Pacific Fence, according to suit. Hoffman’s income also was falsified, according to the court document.

When Nealey and Hoffman’s case manager contacted Corwin Ford, it also agreed to rescinded the deal.

Hoffman becomes homeless

A year after Hoffman bought the SUV he was admitted for inpatient treatment at Lourdes Medical Center.

His case manager said Hoffman’s fixation on finding a new car, the stress of owning the SUV and his inability to afford gas had contributed to the deterioration of his mental condition.

He had left his low-cost housing and was sleeping in the SUV by the Columbia River in Richland, parked near other homeless people, his sister said.

Hoffman was continuing to beg Toyota of Tri-Cities for help, including asking for gas money.

“Dealership employees laughed at him,” according to the lawsuit. “Hoffman was in serious distress over the dealership’s ridicule of him, despite the trust he put in them.”

Hoffman’s ordeal came to an end on Nov. 4, 2022, when the RAV4 was stolen.

The Richland Police Department recovered the SUV a week later, and it was declared a total loss. His insurer sent Toyota Motor Credit Corp. the remaining balance of $23,555.

But the $15,000 down payment and monthly payments his sister made were lost.

Hoffman is now living at Catholic Charity housing in Pasco.

The lawsuit is filed against DJC Automotive doing business as Toyota of Tri-Cities; its current owner, Peter Chung; Toyota Motor Credit Corp.; and Dwight, Janice and Carmen Marquart, who were the dealership owners at the time Hoffman bought the SUV.

The lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial in August 2024.