Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Texas

It sounds like you might not have taken the proper steps to maintain a lien if you released the vehicle without getting payment. Take a look at this:

If a worker relinquishes possession of a motor vehicle . . . in return for a check, money order, or a credit card transaction on which payment is stopped, has been dishonored because of insufficient funds, no funds or because the drawer or maker of the order or the credit card holder has no account or the account upon which it was drawn or the credit card account has been closed, the lien provided by this section continues to exist and the worker is entitled to possession of the vehicle . . . until the amount due is paid, unless the vehicle, . . . is possessed by a person who became a bona fide purchaser of the vehicle after a stop payment order was made. A person entitled to possession of property under this subsection is entitled to take possession thereof in accordance with the provisions of Section 9.609, Business & Commerce Code.

A worker may take possession of a [vehicle under the paragraph above] only if the person obligated under the repair contract has signed a notice stating that the article may be subject to repossession under this section. A notice under this subsection must be:

(1) separate from the written repair contract; or

(2) printed on the written repair contract, credit agreement, or other document in type that is boldfaced, capitalized, underlined, or otherwise set out from surrounding written material so as to be conspicuous with a separate signature line.

So, if you didn't follow these procedures, you may have to go to small claims court to sue for the unpaid bill.