SAAB STORY

It was a scene straight out of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant.” 

In Guthrie’s signature song from 1970 about an arrest for littering in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, the prosecution produced “27 eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.” 

On Wednesday, in a small claims hearing in Mono County Superior Court Judge Mark Magit’s courtroom, the complainant Jordan Kosow similarly produced 27 exhibits. 

Kosow, a Los Angeles resident, was parked in the Village parking lot in March, 2023 during a snowstorm. He left his car, a 2005 Saab, in the lot for three days. He returned to find the car damaged. He blamed the damage on Mammoth Rock ’n Dirt – the subcontractor responsible for snow removal at the lot. 

Kosow said he didn’t see the disclaimer on the back of his parking ticket which indemnifies the lot manager (in this case a national company called SP Plus) and surrogates from responsibility if a car is damaged until after he came back to his car. 

At the time he parked, he said the signs posted at the lot which would have informed him of same were buried. 

Kosow said his 2005 Saab is a collectible and he sued Rock ’n Dirt for more than $11,000 in damages plus he suggested a little pain and suffering money if the judge would acquiesce. 

*Despite the car being a “collectible,” Mr. Kosow had somehow not insured it for property damage so his own insurance company had denied his claim. 

Rock ’n Dirt’s Darren Twilegar presented his defense in less than sixty seconds. 

By the way the snow is piled on Mr. Kosow’s car in the photographs, Twilegar said it wasn’t something his loaders could have done; he attributed the damage to either Caltrans or Town of Mammoth snowblowers which had tossed snow towards the Village parking lot from Minaret Road. 

Judge Magit did his best to let Mr. Kosow down easy before denying the complaint. 

As Alberto Maldonado of SP Plus explained to The Sheet afterwards, that parking lot operators do not assume liability for damage incurred on-site is standard practice. If that weren’t the case, you wouldn’t have parking lots. 

The only way a parking company assumes any liability is if they take your keys and valet your car.