Jay Leno sued in lawsuit over rare Duesenberg

It's a rare car indeed: The Duesenberg, Model J Luxury Roadster was manufactured in a quantity of just 470 units between 1928 to 1937. Jay Leno was awfully lucky to get one of these cars. At least he was lucky, until the estate of the car's deceased owner got wind of it and filed a lawsuit to reclaim the car.

It seems that some questionable tactics are alleged to have been used in executing a "sham" auction through which Jay Leno came to take possession of the highly prized automobile. Bloomberg.com reported that the car's owner, John Straus, had at one time refused an offer from Jay Leno to purchase the car. Subsequently, Leno paid $180,000 for the car at auction, a mere fraction of its true value.

The garage which was storing the car had allegedly seized it, and had it sold to pay some delinquent parking fees. At this time, it is questioned whether or not those parking fees were even righteously delinquent. The plaintiff indicates that repeated attempts to pay outstanding parking fees were rejected, misdirected, or misapplied. The Bloomberg article stated: "Straus's parking account, which the garage claimed was in arrears, was credited $39,709 as a result of the sale."