Legal Question in Product Liability in Arizona

i sold a stolen dirtbike, unknowingly.

So here's my story, i purchased a dirtbike from a guy at my motorcycle mechanics school here in phoenix for $600.00 with a bill of sale because it was broken. I bought the dirtbike to fix it up and resell it, so i purchased a vehicle history report off of cyclevin.com,it's accredited by the better business bureau, and the history report came back completely clean. i put about 500$ into the dirtbike to rebuild the motor, forks, new wheel bearings, chain and sprockets- ect and i ended up selling the dirtbike to two guys that buy dirtbikes here and sell them to a canadian wholesaler for $1,300.00 about a week ago with a notorized bill of sale from the dmv stating it was sold as is. I got a call this past sunday at 10:15 am and one of the guys told me that they had brought the bike to get a level 1 inspection at a third party title shop and the vin ran so they could obtain a title fo the bike to get it across the border into canada and it came back as being "possibly stolen in tennessee", they asked if i would give them the money back and they would give me the dirtbike back but i wanted to figure out what was going on first before i did anything. I actually dont have the money that they paid me for the dirtbike anymore. i sent it back home to my mother because she's having a bit of a tough time right now. I spent the whole day yesterday and most of today to figure out what was going on. I called multiple departments in tennessee, but they were all short with me and unhelpful. i contacted our local auto theft department to see what i should do and i talked to a detective and gave him all of the information i had and i still have no information. so my question is, will i get in any trouble for selling a "possibly stolen" dirtbike, and do i have to refund the money for the dirtbike to the people i sold the dirtbike to? any help is greatly appreciated.


Asked on 4/23/12, 10:20 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Joyce Johnson-Stovall Johnson Stovall and Associates PLLC

The issue in your case is whether you had notice that the bike was stolen at the time of your purchase and sale. You have indicated that you had no notice and you have documents which you acquired which proves that at the time of your purchase and sale you had no notice of the theft.

Generally speaking if the true owner of the vehicle was to notify the court of his or her claim of superior title to the vehicle, the court would hear evidence regarding whether the vehicle was reported stolen prior to your purchase and sale to others. That dispute would occur in a downtown Phoenix courtroom and a judge would attempt to decide who has superior title. It is a civil proceeding. Since you no longer have the vehicle, you would at best be a witness in that case.

The criminal courts try cases involving theft, but they must prove (beyond a reasonable doubt) that the person charged with the theft had specific intent to take property that belonged to others. Based upon the information that you have given, it is doubtful that a prosecutor would have a winning case against you since you did not steal the vehicle. There are other theft crimes, including "receiving stolen goods" or "selling stolen goods"... both of those crimes would also require the prosecutor to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you knowingly received or sold stolen goods.... your facts suggest that you had no prior knowledge. On the issue of whether you have to give back the money to the folks you sold the bike to, we would have to review your documents including the report you received from cyclevin.com and your bill of sale. If you would like us to review those documents and discuss the next step, please call Stephanie Coulter of this office at 602 462 1004 to make arrangements to have the documents reviewed and allow us to have a follow up discussion with you.

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Answered on 4/27/12, 6:16 am


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