Plaintiff enters motion for default judgment into missing engine lawsuit

GALVESTON - The plaintiff in a 2012 lawsuit over a missing engine seeks a default judgment, recent court records show.

Ron Houck entered a motion into his suit on April 17.

Houck sued Leo Lasher, doing business as Auto World, in Galveston County Court at Law No. 2 on Nov. 7, 2012, on grounds he bought a vintage vehicle that did not have the features that were represented.

According to Houck, Lasher told him the 1969 AMC AMX that is the focus of the litigation had a “real 390 CI V-8 engine.”

The plaintiff purchased the car only to subsequently discover “it had a much smaller engine and these facts could not be known to anyone but [the respondent],” the original petition says.

The suit adds the complainant paid $13,500, which supposedly was not the real price as the car “was of a much lower value because of the much smaller engine and in fact was of no value to a collector.”

“This automobile is one that collectors value the much larger engine at a much higher value and [the plaintiff] would not have bought this automobile had he known that the engine was so small,” the original petition says.

Lasher reportedly did not provide a formal response to the allegations.

Houck's motion adds the defendant "has failed to appear."

A dismissal docket is set for May 23 at 2 p.m.

Cause No. 68,683