owner of a Toyota dealership who accused a competitor of drumming up business by accusing the Iranian of being a terrorist.
Shawn Esfahani, owner of Eastern Shore Toyota, had alleged that Bob Tyler Toyota used slanderous words such as “Taliban” and “Taliban Toyota” to gain unfair business advantage over him.
Esfahani’s suit claimed that in at least one instance, Bob Tyler sales manager Fred Kenner told a couple looking to buy a car that Esfahani was an Iraqi terrorist who was financing attacks on American troops with his earnings in the US.
“[Esfahani] is funneling money back to his family and other terrorists. I have a brother over there and what you’re doing is helping kill my brother,” Kenner allegedly told the couple when he called them after they went shopping at Esfahani’s dealership, according to the suit.
After deliberating for three hours, the jury awarded Esfahani $2.5 million in compensatory damages—that is, compensation for actual damage done to his sales—plus a stunning $5 million in punitive damages. The huge punitive sum surprised many coming from a jury in Alabama where ethnic bias is often overlooked or even praised.
“The feeling I received in the courtroom for the truth to come out was worth a lot more than any money anybody can give me,” Esfahani said. “The case didn’t take aim at just Mr. Tyler,” he added. “It was intended to address any other business that resorts to those kinds of actions to win their game unfairly.”
In an era when verbal assaults on Islam and Muslims fill the media and America looks to many to be on an anti-Islamic rant, the jury’s decision stood out as a contrasting statement from ordinary citizens.
Fred Kenner’s attorney, Jeff Luther, told the Mobile Press-Register that they might challenge the decision. “We’re disappointed with the verdict and will consider our options for appeal,” he said.
Esfahani is a naturalized American citizen who left Iran when he was 16, right after the Iranian revolution in 1979. After spending a year in Spain, he received a student visa to the US and attended Tulsa University in Oklahoma.
He did not speak English when he moved to the US, but managed to succeed by “sleeping less, working harder and reading more” than his colleagues, he said.
In March 2010, he had told Dealer magazine why he immigrated to the United States and how he got involved in the car dealership industry:
“Following the revolution in Iran in 1979, being a young man, I really felt my life could have been in danger. I pleaded with my dad to let me leave and he agreed and organized my departure at the right time – two months before the Iran-Iraq war broke out. There was a mandatory draft in Iran, in which the government could make you go to the frontline or wherever they needed you. I did not believe in the revolution or the systematic fundamentalism and theocracy that was taking place, resulting in my leaving the country.
“After my college years, I had to make money to pay for it, so I decided to sell cars in 1985. I found the car business fascinating, and after six months I was the top producer,” he said.
“I moved to South Florida and got a job at a dealership as a salesperson. Then quickly [I] was promoted to sales manager and then general sales manager, eventually leading to general manager position.”
