Overview
- The Justice Department announced Tuesday that S & K Towing agreed to pay $160,000 to resolve a lawsuit alleging it illegally sold or disposed of servicemembers’ vehicles.
- The lawsuit says S & K sold or disposed of as many as 148 vehicles, many towed from Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, without obtaining the court orders required by the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.
- The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act bars sale of a service member’s property without a court order, and the DOJ says a Military Legal Assistance attorney warned S & K in May 2024 after a company manager replied, "We do this all the time."
- Under the settlement S & K is winding down operations, will provide the $160,000 to affected servicemembers, and has agreed that if it returns to towing or vehicle storage it will adopt SCRA-compliant policies; the company did not admit liability.
- The case is part of a long-running DOJ enforcement effort that the department says has recovered more than $489 million for over 152,000 servicemembers since 2011 and servicemembers who believe they were harmed are directed to Armed Forces Legal Assistance offices.