The financial services arm of carmaker Mercedes-Benz did not owe a duty of care to a man whose stolen identity was used to fraudulently purchase a more than $70,000 vehicle, a federal judge has ruled in a case that waded into a question of law that has not yet been addressed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

U.S. District Judge Joseph Leeson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on Monday granted Mercedes-Benz’s motion on the pleadings to dismiss the plaintiff’s common-law negligence claim in the case Havassy v. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services. The litigation is now set to proceed against the automaker on a single claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.