Budget Rent-A-Car Ordered to Turn Over Accident Info In Discrimination Suit
16 March 1999
Budget Rent-A-Car Ordered to Turn Over Accident Info In a Discrimination Class Action Suit, Reports Charfoos & ChristensenDETROIT, March 15 -- Budget Rent-A-Car, which was accused of gouging Michigan consumers and discriminating against minorities in a Class Action lawsuit filed in Wayne County Circuit Court by J. Douglas Peters and Ann Mandt of Detroit's Charfoos & Christensen law firm in October, 1997, was ordered to turn over accident information by 3/19/99. The suit accuses Budget of setting rental rates based on the renter's residential zip code. Plaintiff, Sandra Daniels, an African American resident of Detroit, was charged almost 4x as much as a white suburban male for a weekend rental. Budget claimed they charged people based on their residential zip codes because of accident rates. However, they have repeatedly refused to turn over any accident information. Judge Cynthia Stephens of Wayne County Circuit Court, who had twice previously ordered Budget to comply with discovery, ordered them to turn over the accident information by 3/19/99. "What Budget has done in this lawsuit is the same thing big corporations do whenever they get caught doing something improper," said attorney, Ann Mandt. "They refuse to answer questions or produce documents, they disobey court orders and generally try to obstruct the discovery process any way they can. They took millions of dollars from Detroit consumers and we intend to make them answer every single question and produce every single document or we'll be back in court," said Mandt.