Hertz 2008 Annual Report Download - page 77

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES (Continued)
well as retail used car sales locations in the United States and France. We operate equipment rental
locations in North America (the United States and Canada), Europe (France and Spain) and Asia
(China). We also operate headquarters, sales offices and service facilities in the foregoing countries in
support of our car rental and equipment rental operations, as well as small car rental sales offices and
service facilities in a select number of other countries in Europe and Asia.
Of such locations, approximately 10% are owned by us. The remaining locations are leased or operated
under concessions from governmental authorities and private entities. Those leases and concession
agreements typically require the payment of minimum rents or minimum concession fees and often also
require us to pay or reimburse operating expenses; to pay additional rent, or concession fees above
guaranteed minimums, based on a percentage of revenues or sales arising at the relevant premises; or
to do both. See Note 8 to the Notes to our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual
Report under the caption ‘‘Item 8—Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.’’
We own three major facilities in the vicinity of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma at which reservations for our car
rental operations are processed, global information technology systems are serviced and major
domestic and international accounting functions are performed. We also have a long-term lease for a
reservation and financial center near Dublin, Ireland, at which we have centralized our European car
rental reservation and customer relations and accounting functions, and we lease a reservation center in
Saraland (Mobile County), Alabama to supplement the capacity of our Oklahoma City car rental
reservation center. We plan to close the Saraland facility in mid-2009. We maintain our executive offices
in an owned facility in Park Ridge, New Jersey and lease a European headquarters office in Uxbridge,
England.
ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Fuel-Related Class Actions
We had been a defendant in four purported class actions—filed in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and
Nevada—in which the plaintiffs put forth alternate theories to challenge the application of our Fuel and
Service Charge, or ‘‘FSC,’’ on rentals of cars that were returned with less fuel than when rented. The
actions in Texas and Oklahoma were dismissed in 2008 and the actions in New Mexico and Nevada were
dismissed in 2007.
1. Texas
On March 15, 2004, Jose M. Gomez, individually and on behalf of all other similarly situated
persons, v. The Hertz Corporation was commenced in the 214th Judicial District Court of
Nueces County, Texas. Gomez purported to be a class action filed alternatively on behalf of all
persons who were charged a FSC by us or all Texas residents who were charged a FSC by us.
The petition alleged that the FSC is an unlawful penalty and that, therefore, it is void and
unenforceable. The plaintiff sought an unspecified amount of compensatory damages, with the
return of all FSC paid or the difference between the FSC and our actual costs, disgorgement of
unearned profits, attorneys’ fees and costs. In response to various motions by us, the plaintiff
filed two amended petitions, which scaled back the putative class from a nationwide class to a
class of all Texas residents who were charged a FSC by us or by our Corpus Christi licensee. A
new cause of action was also added for conversion for which the plaintiff sought punitive
damages. After some limited discovery, we filed a motion for summary judgment in December
2004. That motion was denied in January 2005. The parties then engaged in more extensive
discovery. In April 2006, the plaintiff further amended his petition by adding a cause of action for
fraudulent misrepresentation and, at the plaintiff’s request, a hearing on the plaintiff’s motion for
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