WILDWOOD, Mo. — When FOX 2 first interviewed Ben Shakman in November 2024, he told us he’d been waiting nearly 300 days for the Missouri Department of Revenue to issue him a title for this trailer he purchased on Facebook Marketplace.
“$3,500 is what I spent for it, and I attempted to register it, and 294 days later, the state sent me a letter saying that there’s a problem,” Shakman said.
The issue involves what’s called a “skip title.” In this case, the trailer’s original owner, “Owner A,” sold it and transferred the title to “Owner B.” Months later, “Owner B” sold the trailer to Ben.
The problem is, “Owner B” never titled the trailer.
When Ben went to the license office to register it, the title was deemed incomplete because the sale price was missing. Ben says he wrote it in and attempted to prove what he paid for the trailer, but Department of Revenue officials tell us that wasn’t the proper way to handle it and further complicated matters.
“And the request was, well, we need affidavits. And then after I talked to the state, it was now the only way you’re getting a title is by suing us, and here’s how to do it,” Shakman said.
Ben tells us he discussed the issue with his state representatives, DOR staff, and even the governor’s office.
“I said, you must have a process to make this easier for people to follow. Nope. No website, no guide, no pamphlet, no video—none of those things exist,” Shakman said.
So Ben did what he says he was told to do.
“I went to the courthouse in Clayton, and I did something I’ve never done. I sued the state of Missouri,” Shakman said.
In the petition Ben filed in November, he not only asked the court to order the state to produce his title, but he also requested a refund for a portion of the fees he says he paid.
“I asked, how is it reasonable that it took the state 294 days to get around to notify me of a deficiency in my paperwork? Didn’t take them 294 days to cash my check. That happened the same day, but somehow it took 294 days for them to get around to notify me. And I asked, I pushed back on that, how is this reasonable service? And what I got was a bunch of excuses and no answer,” Shakman said.
On April 1, nearly five months after our first interview and 451 days since he first tried to title his trailer, Ben got his day in court.
“We came in today seeking a declaratory judgment. Basically, the judge is telling the court to give this guy his title. And at the end of the day, the judge told the state to give this guy his title, and that’s a victory,” Shakman said.
The judge also scheduled a court date for May 13 to address the other remedies Ben wanted.
“The judge awarded me the second piece, which is the whopping sum of $100. I can’t believe the man-hours that must’ve gone into processing that action I submitted, bringing an attorney into court, and trying up court for about an hour over $100. It just doesn’t make sense,” Shakman said.
In a statement, the Missouri Department of Revenue tells us it handled more than 1.8 million titles last year, with 98% processed in less than seven days.
In the referenced situation, there were title deficiencies that required a declaratory judgment by the court.
Once the court adjusted these deficiencies, a title could then be issued to the buyer. Ben says he wants the state to make it easier for others in the future.
“It’s disgusting to me the notion that this is the way the state of Missouri handles skip titles. It would take so much less for the state of Missouri to adopt some other process. I would suggest that’s wastefulness on the part of our state government,” Shakman said.