Chris and Carol Ferrante,  the former  owners of Gilbert Collision Center in Gilbert, Arizona, have had their lives turned upside down since May from a lawsuit brought against them by Infinity Insurance. (See Autobodynews,com for a profile on the collision repair shop when the Ferrante's owned it in  2002). 

Strom

The attorney

...bringing suit on behalf of an aggressive and overzealous insurer, commences litigation to have a judge set body shop fees and prices.

Infinity Insurance was apparently through their suit trying to force the Court to set rates that certain service providers in the state could charge insurers for towing, storage and the like.

States Chris Ferrante, “They were targeting the people who had bought our shop two months previous to the suit, because of what they charged in their other shop, and those charges they had put in place at Gilbert Collision Center since buying the shop from us. A simple search of the files of the Arizona Corporation Commission, the Business Registration files of the Town of Gilbert, or the Maricopa County Department of Environmental Regulation would have shown that we were no longer the owners of Gilbert Collision Center.”

A proper search was apparently never conducted by the insurer before filing the suit and, as a result, the Ferrantes have been forced to spend thousands to defend themselves.

The insurer

…was attempting to squelch free enterprise through “Legislation from the Bench.”

Ferrante continues, “The real big issue for the collision industry is that Infinity is trying to get a court to rule on just what are fair and reasonable, or excessive, charges. They are trying to get legislation from the bench to regulate charges and fees in the collision repair business in Arizona. Historically, there is no licensing, and no regulation of fees in Arizona for the collision industry, because the legislature has refused to get involved in the past on these issues. Infinity is trying to get the court to fix prices for them because they can’t otherwise legally do it. They zeroed in on the people who bought our shop because they charge some of the highest fees for admin, storage and estimating in the Phoenix area. Infinity’s original complaint was truly ridiculous.”

The suit brought by Infinity Insurance seeks repayment for fees deemed by the

insurer to be excessive, such as $250 admin fees on total loss cars, $75 per day storage fees, re-hook fees, cleanup fees, and towing charges. But the suit is basically flawed because all of the fees being challenged are completely legally un-regulated in the state of Arizona, as there is no state law governing towing, admin or storage fees.

Chris and Carol Ferrante then filed, on May 23, an answer to the lawsuit which clearly proved that the Infinity lawsuit had targeted them in error, using records of the Arizona Corporation Commission, Maricopa County, and the Town of Gilbert as proof that the Ferrantes no longer owned the Gilbert CollisionCenter.

All of these public records were available to Infinity, if they had just looked for them, prior to the filing of their suit. The answer filed to the lawsuit also proved, with invoices and records from Gilbert Collision Center, Inc., that when the Ferrantes owned that shop, they never charged the admin fees and storage charges alleged by Infinity Insurance. The Ferrantes requested Summary Judgment against Infinity, from the Court. The other Defendants named in the suit have not yet filed their answers as of this writing.