BY SCOTT MONROE

Staff Writer

The state senator behind Maine's original lemon law for vehicles thinks new legislation is needed to protect consumers.

Sen. Joseph C. Brannigan, D-Cumberland, said he plans to introduce legislation -- if he's re-elected today -- that would require disclosure for lemons from out of state that are resold in Maine. The Attorney General's Office will assist in drafting a bill.

The proposal comes in response to a pending court case in which the plaintiffs -- Fran and Cynthia Musk-Fontanez of Bath -- say they unknowingly purchased a used car that had been branded a lemon in California.

States define lemons differently, but the term generally describes a vehicle that's had major problems several times that won't go away despite repairs. Maine law does not require vehicle titles to be branded as lemons, even if other states have already done so with the same vehicle.

For Brannigan, the case has highlighted an apparent need for greater consumer protection for resold lemons.

"Originally, I thought everything was OK," Brannigan said. "But there's no reason why we can't require our Maine dealers to require a lemon to be identified whenever they sell it in Maine. Why we didn't do it before, I don't know."

James McKenna, an assistant attorney general, confirmed that the Attorney General's Office would draft language for Brannigan to consider. Brannigan said he's worked with McKenna on other consumer issues.

"It would be a law that requires Maine auto dealers, if they got a car out of state branded a lemon, it specifically requires them to fully disclose its lemon-law history in another state to the consumer, probably verbally and in writing," McKenna said.

That way, he said, there wouldn't be any confusion about the car's history.

Brannigan thinks the law change is also important because even many more dealerships are now purchasing vehicles from around the country, looking for good prices. Stricter oversight seems to be needed because states vary on how they monitor vehicles branded as lemons, he said.

Tom Brown, president of the Maine Automobile Dealers Association, says his organization would be interested in details of new Maine lemon-law legislation and what requirements would be called for beyond the existing law.

"The issues would be how soon information (about a lemon-branded title) is available, because not all the time does the customer trading in a vehicle have the title with them," Brown said.

"We'd have to look at exactly what they (lawmakers and state officials) are talking about. We would be happy to take a look at it. To the extent that information is available to the customer and that could be passed along, that would be fine."

Scott Monroe -- 487-3288, 861-9253

smonroe@centralmaine.com