Davie, Fla. – Sept. 13, 2019 – Gigi Stetler and her company RV Sales of Broward boldly took on General Electric Commercial Distribution Finance (GECDF), the finance division of the goliath General Electric Company, for breach of settlement and won in a stunning and extremely hard-fought victory at the Broward County Courthouse. The jury deliberated for four hours before handing over the verdict.
“So many people thought I was crazy to go up against General Electricand thought we would never win against such a big company. It was like a batting cage where the ball never stops. But we kept swinging and finally prevailed. We had the truth on our side,” said Gigi Stetler, CEO of RV Sales of Broward.
Due to her extensive knowledge of the case, Stetler represented herself during the 8-day trial. Stetler’s company, RV Sales of Broward, was represented by Peter Ticktin of The Ticktin Law Group. The trial was delayed at one point because of Hurricane Dorian. There was also a full day of motions for summary judgements that could have stopped the whole case from even going to trial but Stetler prevailed.
The case goes back to 2008, when GECDF, the former finance company for RV Sales, erroneously audited Stetler’s company and removed her entire RV inventory without cause. Despite GE admitting it was all a simple auditing mistake, the damage had been done.
Overnight, RV Sales of Broward went from a profitable, booming business to one saddled with $11.5 million in debt. Stetler’s RV inventory ended up in the possession of Stetler’s competitor Camping World and was even rented to some of Stetler’s former customers.
In 2009, Stetler and GECDF entered arbitration over the case. It went to trial in 2011, and on the fourth day of trial, the two parties reached an undisclosed settlement agreement. Stetler also agreed to drop a class action lawsuit claiming GECDF wrongfully charged thousands of RV dealers hundreds of millions of dollars in interest.
But in March 2013, GECDF had yet to fulfill its side of the settlement, so Stetler and RV Sales were forced to file another lawsuit in Broward County against the corporate giant for breach of settlement agreement.
“We have endured an incredible amount of corporate bullying and endless foot dragging to rack up legal bills and get me to back down,” said Stetler. “But I’m not going let GE or anyone else push me around. I was forced to rebuild my entire company because of a corporate error and I just want what is fairly mine. Nothing more.”
Gigi Stetler is available for interviews. Please reach out to Kelcey Kintner at Kelcey@redbanyan.com or 646.391.8001.
