California Lemon Law Guide: Does California’s Lemon Law Apply to My Out of State Purchase — California State Electronics Assn v. Zeos

If you are a consumer with a lemon vehicle, one of the first questions to ask is “What laws protect me?”  Many consumers in California lived out of state previously and may have purchased their vehicle somewhere else.  Does California’s Lemon Law protect them?  Unless you are active duty military (as explained below), it depends on where the sale occurred and title passed, and what the sales contract says regarding delivery.  Under California law, title passes to the buyer at the time and place at which the seller completes his performance with respect to the physical delivery of the goods.  California State Electronics Assn v. Zeos Internat. Ltd., 41 Cal.App.4th 1270 (1996)(citing UCC 2401(2)).  Generally speaking, if you took delivery outside California, you are not protected by California’s lemon law.  Only if the sales contract requires the seller to deliver the vehicle in California, the Zeos case tells us, is a vehicle  purchased out of state protected under California’s lemon law.  Even if it was in fact shipped to California  by the out of state seller, it is only where the sales contract requires California delivery that California’s lemon law then applies.

One important exception — active duty military.  California has passed in to a law a special exception for active duty military that purchased their lemon in another state.  For active duty military, California’s lemon law covers those non-California purchases!