There still are a few dealerships that have yet to sign the termination agreements related to the discontinuation of the Mercury brand by Ford Motor Co. It has been over two years ago since Ford announced the demise of Mercury. Last July, about 98% of dealerships had signed while 31 dealerships were unresolved, according to Autonews. Ford said that so far, around 99% from a total of 1,712 Mercury dealerships that operated at the time of Ford's June 2010 Mercury announcement have signed termination deals. Ford declined to give the exact number of dealerships that haven’t signed, except to say that there is “just a handful in some version of dispute resolution with the company.” Kevin Cour, Lincoln's sales and service manager, said that the company is hoping to move forward already.
The dealerships that haven’t signed the termination agreements have a problem with the unsatisfactory settlement offers. As of last summer, three of at least four federal lawsuits against Ford were settled. The latest settlement occurred in May, with Francis Scott Key L-M Inc. in Frederick, Md., agreeing to the settlement. This was confirmed by Pete Adcock, who owns Francis Scott Key. However, he didn’t provide details because a confidentiality agreement was part of the settlement.
In late May, Forrester Lincoln-Mercury of Chambersburg, Pa., Ford had filed a motion in court to enforce a settlement agreement it claimed had been entered with the plaintiff. However, Richard Sox, a Florida lawyer who represented Forrester, said that that Ford is hoping to avoid an unfavorable decision by the court. He said that Ford's settlement enforcement request was filed immediately after the judge decided against Ford’s motion to throw out the lawsuit. Sox said that no settlement was reached. Rather, there were preliminary talks and Ford is now working to achieve an “enforceable settlement."
