Okay, here is something that doesn't add up to me.
He had the car a year.
He had a 3 year lease.
He still owed $27,470.68 on the lease.
What? That's more than the car should have SOLD for, not counting the 9 to 12 payments he had already made, and he was LEASING it, not buying it.
That's a lease payment of over $1,100 a month.
Looking at the local Toyota dealer website, that car leases for $149 a month with $2,999 down for 24 months for a total of payments of $6,575, NOT $27,000+
Saying the man owned $27K+ on the lease is a bad way to phrase it - more properly, the calculated residual value of the car per the lease agreement at this point was 27K. So the car needed to sell for that much to buy out the lease early. And it didn't. So the estate ended up owing the rest.
Look at it this way. You lease a car today valued at $30K new. The finance company calculates that they will be able to sell the car at the end of the 2 year lease you are signing for $20K, so you are given a lease payment of about $425/month. But that car actually loses resale value the minute you drive it off the lot - say it goes down to $28K. You pay one month of your lease but decide the next month to turn the car back in. Toyota will take it back as an early termination and sell it - but they only get the $28K the market now says its worth. That doesn't mean that life is well and good for you since you paid your $425 lease payment. You in fact still owe the finance company the $1575 the car lost in value beyond what you paid in the month you had it.
Leases are NOT rental cars. People cause more confusion in the long run trying to classify them that way. Residual values are tricky. In a lease, you are basically paying for the depreciation of a car over the time you sign the lease for. They are calculated so that the finance company is whole at the end of the lease - that doesn't mean there isn't a gap like I described above for a significant portion of the lease. If you turn things in early, that messes with all the calculations. And that's why early termination charges kick in.