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I won car wash case

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A

anatiychuk

Guest
From California

I had asked, and you have answered my question regarding a car wash that damaged my car close to value of the car. I won in small claims court on December 8, 2000. On the court documents finalizing the judgement it states that the defendant has 30 days to file an appeal, if they are not satisfied with the outcome. The question is: Can I call up the defendant and ask for the money, now??? or should I wait until the 30 days are up. I received the judgement letter on December 14,2000. I have not heard anything further from the court or from the defendant.

Thanks
 


JETX

Senior Member
First, a question:

Did the Defendant (the car wash) either answer your complaint or appear at the trial? If not, then you need to be aware that the judgment is a default judgment, and it might be 'weak' (see below).

As to your question, do NOT, repeat, DO NOT contact the defendant during this allowed appeal time. There is NO benefit to it, and a lot of possible damage. All you will be doing is 'reminding' him of the judgment and he could appeal it. Let the 30 day appeal deadline pass first.

Now, back to the weak judgment...
One of the biggest problems that 'laypersons' have in pursuing civil claims is in making sure that the proper person or business was sued, and in the correct capacity. For example, let's say that the sign at the car wash says, Bubba's Car Wash. In researching your case, you find that this car wash is owned by Bob Johnson, d/b/a Bubba's Car Wash. If your suit is styled "'You' v. Bubba's Car Wash" and you get a default judgment it is probably worthless. That is because there is no such LEGAL entity as Bubba's Car Wash (it is a d/b/a of an individual and HE is the person that needed to be named to be correct service). Another example, (again, the owner is Bob Johnson, d/b/a Bubba's Car Wash, but his nickname is Bubba), if you styled the suit Bubba Johnson, d/b/a Bubba's Car Wash, again it could possibly be voided since it is not his correct legal name. There are a lot of pitfalls in determining the proper 'partys' involved and this is a BIG problem for having a proper judgment.
 

I AM ALWAYS LIABLE

Senior Member
anatiychuk said:
From California

I had asked, and you have answered my question regarding a car wash that damaged my car close to value of the car. I won in small claims court on December 8, 2000. On the court documents finalizing the judgement it states that the defendant has 30 days to file an appeal, if they are not satisfied with the outcome. The question is: Can I call up the defendant and ask for the money, now??? or should I wait until the 30 days are up. I received the judgement letter on December 14,2000. I have not heard anything further from the court or from the defendant.

Thanks
My response:

Congratulations.

If the Defendant files an appeal request within 30 days from the date the judgment was signed, you'll receive information from the Clerk of the Court with information.

Do not contact the Defendant in the meantime. Let the clock run out.

In the meantime, I would suggest that you go to a large Bookstore, like Barnes & Noble, and go into the "legal" section. Buy a book on "Collecting Judgments". There's more to it than calling or writing the Defendant and asking.

The book will tell you how to legally collect your judgment and all the steps necessary, along with all of the proper court forms.

I am sure ALawyer will also be quite pleased to read about your results.

IAAL
 
A

anatiychuk

Guest
Regarding Car wash Case

From California

This is in response to a reply from Halket and IAAL,
thank you very much for your responses. I talkd and I have sent letters and I know the Defendant is fully aware of the incident and pending judgement because: The Defendant did show up to court, but sent the regular manager in the gas station and a regular gas station attendant. It seemed odd that a corporation, which is pretty big the company owns 20 stations is northern california and are under the SHELL corporation, sent those 2 people to court to represent them. Originally the "Owner (who also owns 20 other stations) had turned the case over to his insurance company to deal with it, they took 1.5 months to tell me they will not pay for the damage. At which point I talked with the owner again, who left me no choice but to sue. Wouldn't the owner rather pay up then go into a hassel of collections and credit problems? if and when the owner pays Do you think he will ask his insurance to pay or does the insurance ever pay judgements?
 

JETX

Senior Member
With all due respect, you are now asking us to play a 'what if' game about your judgment.

There is no way that anyone, certainly no one so removed from the specific facts of this case can answer your questions with any knowledge.... "Wouldn't the owner rather pay up then go into a hassel of collections and credit problems? if and when the owner pays Do you think he will
ask his insurance to pay or does the insurance ever pay judgements?"

Does it really matter who pays???? Wait the allowed appeal period (do NOT contact the Defendant during this period). When the appeal period has expired, contact the defendant in writing and ask that he contact you (3 business days??) to discuss his paying the judgment. If he doesn't pay it, contact the court clerk and find out the local procedures for obtaining a "Writ of Execution" against the business. The sheriff (or constable) will execute on the business and I am sure that they will pay.
 

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