Legal Question in Business Law in New Jersey

At a private airport (Teterboro, NJ) I signed an Enterprise car rental contract on July 25th, 2011 to lease a car for 2 weeks with unlimited mileage, which was prepared and countersigned by a person not employed by Enterprise. On being asked my destination, I answered 'The West Coast'.

Upon my arrival in California on Tuesday August 1st I contacted the Enterprise office in NJ to arrange to drop the vehicle off at LAX only then to be informed that procedural rules which prohibited leasing ANY vehicles from this location, managed by Meridian, to any person not holding a valid pilot's license had not been followed. Furthermore, vehicles rented from this location were only to be driven within NJ, NY & CT borders, and a surcharge of 25 cents per mile would be added for usage exceeding a daily limit of 125 miles.

I'm contesting a mileage charge of $590.10. Bank of America won't help me. Have I any recourse?


Asked on 9/22/11, 5:24 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Corbett Corbett Law Firm LLC

You are obligated by the terms of the written agreement and possibly by any other condititions or restrictions that you had notice of at the time of contracting. Conversely, you are entited to the benefit of the bargain. The fact that Enterprise put a person in charge who may have exceeded their authority is not your problem unless you had reason to know that. So, read the contract. If the restrictions are there, you are bound by them. If not, "unlimited mileage" means exactly that.

I am not surprised that Bank of America won't help you. They have never been of very much help to me either and I avoid doing business with them whenever possible.

Keep in mind that NJ has a robust consumer fraud statutes and it is ready made for such situations as to Enterprise and perhaps Bank of America if they refused to follow their advertised charge back policies.

See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm

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Answered on 9/22/11, 8:51 pm


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