Orr Volkswagen seeks at least $1.07 million from Missouri warranty mailer company as federal trial opens

TEXARKANA, Texas – A Texarkana car dealership asked a federal judge Monday to award it at least $1.07 million from a Missouri company that put the dealership’s name on mailers selling vehicle service contracts.

The trial in Orr Auto Inc.’s lawsuit against Autoplex Extended Services LLC opened before U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder III, who is hearing the case without a jury. Orr Auto does business as Orr Volkswagen of Texarkana.

The questions left for trial are how much Autoplex owes and whether it should be permanently barred from using the Orr name. The court ruled against the company on liability in November 2024 after it failed to respond to the lawsuit.

Autoplex, of St. Charles, Mo., does business as Motor Vehicle Services.

What Orr is asking for

In a joint pretrial order filed Monday, Orr asks the court to make Autoplex turn over $1,072,126.66. Orr says that is the revenue from service contracts Autoplex sold to customers within 250 miles of the dealership’s former location at 4545 N. State Line Ave.

The court ordered Autoplex in 2024 to account for its sales within that radius. Orr says about 637 of the 1,639 sales in Autoplex’s records fall inside it, or about 39 percent of the company’s reported revenue.

As an alternative, Orr asks for $31,116,581.68 in gross revenue, plus an amount for 2019 through 2021. Orr says Autoplex produced financial records only for 2022 through 2025, and that the gap should be held against the company.

Orr also lists another $1,072,126.66 as an enhancement if the judge finds an award based on profits is inadequate.

The dealership is seeking $146,359.58 in attorney’s fees, a figure it expects to grow by about $50,000 through trial, along with a permanent injunction.

Orr contends Autoplex used its name on mailers for about six years, from March 2019 to March 2025, and kept using it after the default judgment. It says the conduct was willful and cites a Letter of Caution the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance issued to Autoplex in 2021. The filing does not describe what the letter said.

Autoplex’s response

Autoplex argues in the same filing that Orr still has to show sales that resulted from the mailers. It says the 250-mile radius is unreasonable and that any award should be limited to sales within 50 miles of the dealership.

The company also says the two businesses are not in the same line of work because it does not sell extended warranties on new vehicles.

Autoplex says that once it learned of the lawsuit, it took part in the case, produced tens of thousands of pages of documents and made a company representative available for a deposition.

Orr’s filing says Autoplex has taken the position that it did not control the outside vendor responsible for the mailings. Orr argues that makes a repeat more likely, not less.

Autoplex says its previous attorney was hospitalized with a serious illness during the case. It has preserved its objections to the default judgment for appeal.

First day of testimony

Court minutes show the trial ran from 9 a.m. to 4:32 p.m. Monday.

The judge questioned Autoplex’s attorney, Christopher Chapaneri, about a request to postpone the trial. The pretrial order says the company recently changed attorneys. The trial went ahead.

Joel Miller Orr testified for the dealership for about an hour. Elliott Rich, Autoplex’s designated company representative, was on the stand for most of the afternoon.

Autoplex did not file a witness list before trial, according to the pretrial order. A magistrate judge ruled last week that Rich could testify for the company on a limited basis.

The minutes show Schroeder asked about the 250-mile radius and about records of sales within both the 250-mile and 50-mile areas. Late in the day, the judge addressed Autoplex’s failure to identify witnesses and documents. The minutes do not record what was said.

Schroeder gave each side five hours to present its case. The pretrial order estimates the trial will take two days.

How the case began

Orr filed the lawsuit Feb. 29, 2024. According to the complaint, a resident brought a letter to a director of the dealership and asked what it meant.

The letter displayed “Orr Volkswagen of Texarkana” in large, bold type in the center of the page and offered vehicle service contracts, the complaint said.

The complaint said the Orr name has been used in the car business in the Texarkana area since the 1960s and that the dealership has sold its own service contracts since January 2014.

The clerk entered a default against Autoplex on July 16, 2024. The court entered judgment on liability Nov. 26, 2024, on all four claims: unfair competition under the federal Lanham Act, and unfair competition, trademark infringement and unjust enrichment under Texas law.

Autoplex later asked the court to set aside the judgment, saying it did not know about the lawsuit until May 2025 and had not been properly served. The court denied the request in December 2025, according to court records.

Insurers file their own suit

On Friday, two insurance companies that covered Autoplex filed a separate lawsuit in the same court asking a judge to rule they do not have to pay.

Nationwide Assurance Co. and AMCO Insurance Co. say Autoplex did not tell them about Orr’s lawsuit until Aug. 19, 2026, more than two years after it was served. They also say the policies exclude trademark infringement claims.

The policies carry limits of $1 million per occurrence, according to the complaint. The insurers say they assigned an attorney to defend Autoplex while reserving the right to deny coverage.

Orr’s attorney, Cory Floyd of Floyd Law PLLC in Texarkana, told the judge about the insurers’ lawsuit at the start of Monday’s proceedings, the minutes show.

The insurers’ case is also assigned to Schroeder.

The trial had not concluded as of Monday, and no ruling on damages had been issued.