Interpretation ID: nht78-3.49

DATE: 04/24/78

FROM: AUTHOR UNAVAILABLE; John Womack; NHTSA

TO: Alliance of American Insurers

TITLE: FMVSR INTERPRETATION

TEXT: This is in response to your letter of March 22, 1978, requesting that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) interpret "primary place of business" under 49 CFR Part 580 to include regional offices and other places of business where companies' records are customarily maintained.

It is our opinion that "primary place of business" includes, in the case of a business with multiple offices, a regional or local office where transactions involving the subject vehicles took place and the records are maintained, in addition to the home office or headquarters of the business. For example, if a vehicle is repossessed by an insurance company that has its home office in New York, but the regional office in Chicago handled and retained all the paperwork on the repossessed vehicle, then the Chicago office would be the primary place of business for that transaction and the odometer disclosure statements should be retained in the Chicago office. The office that the purchaser dealt with would be the one he would contact if a problem arose at a later time. Therefore, it would be the logical office to maintain the records. If, however, the Chicago office handled the paperwork but upon completion forwarded it to the New York office, the New York office, as the repository for all paperwork, would be the primary place of business and odometer statements, like all other documents should be forwarded to that office. The place of retention, like the manner of retention, must be consistent so that systematic retrieval is possible.