Towing Issues: Recovery of Truck That Went to Auction, duplicate title, lien holder

Question
When I purchased my truck in Utah in 2001 I was not aware of a lien which had been placed on it and I am sure that this was a mistake.  As a result I moved to Florida and tried to register my truck there and could not.  A request for a duplicate title was denied because of this lien.  The next step was to fill out a form to get the lien holder's name which is protected by some law.  This was done and, despite numerous requests since then, the request has not been honored.  Eventually, due to complaints, my truck was towed from the compound in which I live.  Someone did not like seeing it with expired tags and a flat tire.  I don't think they had the right to do that. The Towing Company told me that I could not recover my truck until I could get it legal and, of course, that was a problem.  Later on I get a notice in the mail that has no indication that it has anything to do with my truck.  Unfortunately, with what I had going on, I did not look at this particular piece of mail.  I did eventually open it up to find out that my truck was due to be put on an auction that had already come and gone.  Phone calls to Bonnie Towing Company in Boca Raton were unproductive in trying to deal with this accompanied by their attitude.  The response to my initial inquiry came from a girl ( I use that term loosely ) that answered and told me that " obviously " my truck went to auction.  Well I'm here to tell you that this was not obvious to me at all and it was not explained to me when I called the first time to ask how to get my truck back.  This is a huge failure of the system for a person like me who has tried everything to resolve this situation only to see thousands of dollars get taken from me in the form of this truck.  Finally, my question is what can I do to try to recover my truck or what legal action can be taken to hold one or more of these entities which put up so much red tape accountable and get FULL compensation of every cost that I have sustained due to their negligence.

Answer
james,

This is outside my expertise, as oregon laws are very simple when dealing with liens. I do believe that a lien will always supercede a title, but it is very simple here, and seems much more complicated in Florida.

I can only suggest seeking help from the local sheriffs department to find out what the procedures should have been, so if anything was not done to the letter of the law, then you could possibly go to court and let a judge decide.

Donald