Canadian man sues Benz for billions over terminated lease, loses

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A father-son duo from British Columbia recently attempted to win over $49 billion from Mercedes-Benz after the German automaker’s Canadian financial services branch defaulted them and repossessed their leased 2018 Metris van. 

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Canadian man sues Benz for billions over terminated lease, loses Back to video

Automotive News Canada reports how the B.C. Supreme Court dealt with the “vexatious litigants,” Tong “Heintz” Sun and his father, who initially leased a Metris van for their short-term rental business. But Sun allegedly went on to damage the vehicle in a spring 2020 vandalism spree where he “smash(ed) vehicle windows at multiple auto dealerships” and was subsequently caught and arrested by Vancouver police. After being notified by police who’d impounded the van, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Canada ended the lease because the vehicle had been used in an “injurious and unlawful manner.” 

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Makes sense. No brand is going to want to lease you a vehicle to be used as a battering ram or getaway vehicle. 

But the Suns refused to pay out the lease sum required to recover the vehicle, becoming “extremely aggressive” and telling a financial services employee that he “would be sorry if he did not give the Metris back and pay him for lost income of $50,000.” When the lease wasn’t paid out, the lending faction auctioned the van, which in turn caused the Suns to file a lawsuit seeking around $1 million for breach of lease. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Canada then counter-sued for the lease balance. 

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And here’s where it gets really spicy. Because the Suns then upped their suit to go after over $49 billion for alleged defamation, saying the company’s negative credit reports ruined Sun’s chances of attending a top-tier MBA program that would’ve helped him “become a dollar value billionaire.” He also claimed that it wasn’t him in the car at all during that crime spree, but “another person with his identical name that was driving…” while he was in England studying.

Justice Simon Coval found no evidence to support the Sun’s assertions – which were presented by Tong Sun instead of a lawyer – calling his out-of-country excuse “beyond belief.” The Suns lost the case, and the court ordered them to pay Mercedes-Benz over $18,000, around what they owed for the rest of the lease, plus attorney fees and legal expenses, bringing the total up to around $70,000.