Sun GMC, Inc. filed a $15 million GM GMC lawsuit against General Motors on June 3, asking a federal court for a jury trial and accusing the automaker of starving the dealership of inventory for years. The complaint says the shortage was no accident, but part of an effort to drive the New York dealer out of business.

That filing matters because it turns a long-running fight over vehicle allocation into a court case with money on the line. Patrick Cassino, the dealership owner, is at the center of it, and his attorney, Leonard Bellavia, said the pattern looks like an attempt to put him out of business. In the complaint, Sun says GM grew stingy with its inventory over several years, leaving the dealer unable to sell vehicles it was not supplied. The lawsuit says that hurt customer scores and sales goals, a pair of measurements that can shape how a dealership is judged inside the GM system.

The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and it adds a new legal flashpoint to an issue that has shadowed dealers for years: who gets vehicles, how many, and on what terms. The complaint centers on alleged inequitable new-vehicle allocation, but it does not spell out the specific practices Sun says were unfair or the number of vehicles involved over the years it says the shortage persisted.

GM representatives did not immediately return an email requesting comment, leaving Sun’s claims unanswered in public for now. That silence matters because the lawsuit asks a judge and jury to decide whether a supply dispute was simply business friction or a deliberate squeeze on a dealer that says it was left unable to compete on its own lot.