U Haul International Inc

Complaint Against U-Haul Ads Referred to FTC: In an unusual move, the National Advertising Review Board, the advertising industry's self-regulatory agency, referred to the Federal Trade Commission a complaint against the company's advertised "guaranteed reservations" claims. The board said it made the referral after U-Haul International Inc. failed to indicate that it would comply with the board's recommendation to quit using the potentially misleading claim in its Yellow Pages ads.

Amerco's U-Haul International Inc. must pay $84 million to a man who was injured when the truck he rented ran over him, a Texas jury said Friday. The man, Talmadge Waldrip, 74, parked the truck on a "slight incline" and the parking brake failed, said his attorney, Ted Lyon. Waldrip said U-Haul failed to maintain the truck, causing the accident. "The truck's parking brake did not work at all," Lyon said. "He stepped out of the truck and it rolled right over him."

U-Haul Gets Financing: A group of 11 investors provided $102.5 million in financing to the parent company of U-Haul International Inc. as the company struggles to whittle down a huge outstanding debt. "This financing allows us to continue as a healthy, viable company," said E. J. Shoen, president of U-Haul and chairman of the parent company Amerco. Shoen refused to say how much debt would be paid or the total amount of debt outstanding.

U-Haul International Inc. has settled a class-action lawsuit that had accused the equipment rental giant of deceiving California customers through its reservations policy. The settlement came amid U-Haul's appeal of a court ruling that found it had engaged in fraudulent business practices. In the 2006 ruling, Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Samuel S. Stevens barred U-Haul agents from promising "confirmed reservations" for one-way equipment rentals in California.

Amerco's U-Haul International Inc. must pay $84 million to a man who was injured when the truck he rented ran over him, a Texas jury said Friday. The man, Talmadge Waldrip, 74, parked the truck on a "slight incline" and the parking brake failed, said his attorney, Ted Lyon. Waldrip said U-Haul failed to maintain the truck, causing the accident. "The truck's parking brake did not work at all," Lyon said. "He stepped out of the truck and it rolled right over him."

Judge OKs Settlement in U-Haul Case: Federal Bankruptcy Judge James M. Marlar approved a plan by the board of Amerco Inc., corporate parent of U-Haul International Inc. of Phoenix, to pay the remaining $313.8 million owed on a judgment in favor of U-Haul founder Leonard S. Shoen and six of his children. The judge's decision settles a family feud that began in 1986 when Joe and Mark Shoen forced their father, now 79, into early retirement and began a push to control the company.

U-Haul International Inc. is considering appealing a Los Angeles court decision that 480 current and former employees were improperly classified as managers and denied overtime wages, said Bill Kannow, an attorney representing the Phoenix-based company. In a hearing set for April, the plaintiffs will argue they are owed more than $10 million in overtime pay, said Matthew A. Kaufman, an attorney representing the current and former employees participating in the class-action lawsuit.

Amerco, parent of U-Haul International Inc., sued PricewaterhouseCoopers for $2.5 billion Monday, accusing the world's largest accounting firm of providing bad advice that nearly led to bankruptcy. Reno-based Amerco said Pricewaterhouse structured off-the-books entities to help U-Haul legally avoid putting real estate-related losses on its books.

U-Haul International Inc. has settled a class-action lawsuit that had accused the equipment rental giant of deceiving California customers through its reservations policy. The settlement came amid U-Haul's appeal of a court ruling that found it had engaged in fraudulent business practices. In the 2006 ruling, Santa Cruz Superior Court Judge Samuel S. Stevens barred U-Haul agents from promising "confirmed reservations" for one-way equipment rentals in California.

Online pop-up ads do not violate trademark laws even if they cover up or appear alongside unaffiliated Web sites, including those of rivals, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee also placed some of the responsibility for those ads on computer users, saying they voluntarily agree to them, even if they do so unwittingly. Lee's ruling Friday came in a lawsuit filed last year by U-Haul International Inc. against WhenU.com, a company blamed for some of the pop-ups.

A King County jury has awarded $15.5 million to a Renton woman who was disfigured and blinded in February 2004 when part of an entertainment center flew from a rented U-Haul trailer and crashed through her windshield. Maria Federici's lawyers had sought $38 million in damages. Jurors found U-Haul most liable, ordering it to pay two-thirds of the award, and said the driver who was towing the entertainment center, James Hefley, should pay the rest.

U-Haul International Inc., the nation's leading provider of rental trailers and trucks, is inspecting its vehicles more frequently since The Times raised questions about the company's maintenance practices earlier this year, according to employees, managers and dealers. Interviews, internal bulletins and a recent field survey of U-Haul equipment indicated that management is pushing employees and dealers to be more vigilant about inspections.

When the parking brake malfunctioned repeatedly, Demetrio T. Nagtalon drove the truck back to the U-Haul rental center in San Francisco to exchange it for another. After pulling into the check-in area, Nagtalon watched as a U-Haul employee slid under the dashboard with a pliers to tug on the brake cable. The worker left the engine running and the truck on an incline, neglecting to block the wheels. Suddenly, the truck began rolling downhill. Nagtalon rushed toward it, trying to help.

U-HAUL INTERNATIONAL INC. has had its share of courtroom dramas, but none quite like one involving its corporate sister, Oxford Life Insurance Co. When Oxford balked at paying a modest claim from a badly injured policyholder, it was hammered with a $39-million verdict. The judge denounced Oxford's conduct as the worst he'd ever seen. The policyholder, West Virginia farmer Charles Kocher, had long wanted a Ford pickup.

PINNED inside an overturned Ford Explorer on Interstate 5 in Bakersfield, Gabriel Koloszar looked up to see her friend Paulo Aguilar hanging unconscious from his seat belt, his blood dripping down on her. Rescuers pulled Koloszar out through the windshield. When she tried to stand, another passenger cried out: "Oh my God, Gabby. Your feet!" Only then, she recalled, did she look down to see her mangled flesh.

U-HAUL CUSTOMERS who have seethed over botched reservations were vindicated last year when a California judge ruled that the company had engaged in "unlawful and fraudulent business practices." Ruling in a class action, Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Samuel S. Stevens struck at U-Haul's practice of booking reservations for trucks and trailers without knowing if it will have the equipment when and where customers need it.

In the early hours of Aug. 6, Eva Berg Shoen, 44, was shot to death with a .25-caliber pistol as she slept in her deluxe log home, set amid aspen and spruce trees outside the rustic, 1880s-vintage ski town of Telluride. Investigators were stumped. The shooting smacked of a professional hit. But why, nervous townspeople wondered, would anyone kill this pleasant, blonde, Norwegian-born woman who had moved with her family to the area for its small-town atmosphere?

The self-storage business, by most accounts, is doing nicely these days. Demand for mini-warehouse space is gradually rising, and the average facility is 80% to 90% full. Rental prices also are edging higher. The market is strengthening because few new self-storage sites are being built. Banks and other lenders, burned lately by commercial loans that went sour, are particularly reluctant to finance self-storage facilities, of which there are already more than 20,000 nationwide.

U-HAUL SAYS IT'S SAFER to tow its equipment than to drive a car without a trailer. The company advanced this contrarian idea as far back as 1970, when it was fighting proposed federal towing-safety rules. Citing its own data and figures collected from states, U-Haul said in a report: "AN AUTOMOBILE WITHOUT A TRAILER IS MORE LIKELY TO HAVE AN ACCIDENT THAN ONE WITH A TRAILER."

THE U-HAUL TRUCK was 19 years old, with nearly 234,000 miles on its odometer. It had a history of problems with its emergency brake and was overdue for a safety inspection. Talmadge Waldrip, 73, of Forney, Texas, was using it to help his daughter move some belongings in September. He drove to a warehouse and killed the engine. Then he put the manual transmission in gear, set the emergency brake and stepped down from the cab, he told family members later. Instantly, the truck rolled backward.