Labor & Employment Law

Does Massachusetts? Lemon Law apply to a town?s vehicles?

That was the question before the Easthampton, Massachusetts, city counsel, as it considered whether to dump of the town?s police cruisers. Apparently, this police cruiser suffered the all-too-familiar lemon law tale, spending more time in the shop for repair than chasing the bad guys on the street.

But does Massachusetts Lemon law cover police cruisers? Not really. Massachusetts has some of the strongest consumer protection laws in the country. Massachusetts General Law, Chapter 90, Section 7N1/2, is the state?s new and leased car Lemon Law. In addition, the Massachusetts Consumer Protection Act (Massachusetts General Law, chapter 93A), covers unfair or deceptive merchant practices.

However, MA lemon law doesn?t cover vehicles used for business purposes, such as police cruisers. Other warranty laws may apply, but these claims are more far-fetched and more difficult to prove.

Sorry, Easthampton, you?re out of luck on this one.

Harvey Randall comments: Similarly, New York?s ?Lemon Law? (General Business Law 198-a) protects purchasers of new cars and certain used cars that turn out to be ?lemons? when such vehicles are primarily used for personal, family or household purposes. Government agencies, however, may wish to explore the possibility of including ?Lemon Law type coverage" in their specifications seeking competitive bids for motor vehicles.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on September 09, 2008 (boomark / email).