Along with "the other case" involving voting rights -- a citizenship ID case out of Arizona (they just love asking for papers there) -- and Takings claim involving raisins, we had Dan's City Used Cars, Inc. v. Pelkey. The law might deal with a matter only Breyer could love (he wrote a book on a related matter), but SCOTUSBlog said this about the facts:
There’s no denying that the facts of Pelkey’s case are sympathetic. While Pelkey was confined to bed with a serious medical condition, petitioner Dan’s City Used Cars towed his car away because he failed to move it before a snowstorm, as the rules of his apartment complex required. Soon after, Pelkey was admitted to the hospital, had his foot amputated, and suffered a heart attack. While Pelkey was in the hospital, Dan’s City sought permission from the state to sell his car at auction. This required Dan’s City to certify that the car – a fully operational 2004 Honda Civic with less than eight thousand miles on the odometer – was worth less than five hundred dollars and wasn’t fit for use.I only listened to some of it -- kinda boring -- but Breyer didn't seem to ask as many questions as the preview writer suggested. Another "car seizure" sort of case with colorful facts. [Update: Re-cap here.]
It wasn’t until Pelkey left the hospital two months later that he discovered his car was missing. Pelkey’s attorney asked Dan’s City to give the car back, but the company went ahead with a scheduled auction, at which the car failed to sell. There’s a dispute about what happened next: the lower courts found, and Pelkey claims, that Dan’s City falsely informed him that the car had been sold at public auction; Dan’s City denies that. But nobody disputes that the company (which runs a used-car lot) traded the car to a third party without compensating Pelkey.
(These facts may remind some readers of the Steve Goodman song, “Lincoln Park Pirates,” written about a Chicago company known for its towing practices. You can watch Goodman perform the song here.)