A pair of lessees of a 2018 Mercedes-Benz Metris hoped to win more than $38 billion from the lender that repossessed their vehicle.
Instead, they left the British Columbia Supreme Court owing Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Canada nearly $55,000 for the breach of the lease, attorney fees and legal expenses.
The bizarre scenario began when Tong Sun, who leased the van with his father for their short-term rental business, allegedly used the Metris in an April 2020 vandalism incident. He smashed vehicle windows at “multiple auto dealerships” before Vancouver police intercepted and arrested him, according to court documents.
Police impounded the damaged Metris, and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services terminated the lease for allowing the van to be used in an “injurious and unlawful manner.”
Sun and his father demanded more than $38 billion for alleged defamation, claiming negative reports to credit agencies had torpedoed Sun’s plan to attend a top-tier MBA program and “become a dollar value billionaire.”
Justice Simon Coval, who ruled that M-B Financial Services was fully justified in terminating the lease, said Sun’s “explanation that it was another person with his identical name that was driving is beyond belief.”