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Florida Small Claims

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Joyus53

Junior Member
Place of residence is Florida.

I know this will be a bit convoluted, please forgive me.

I'm an interior decorator. Not a designer, not licensed, and I have worked for a gentleman who owns a number of real estate holdings in the state of Florida, duplexes and apartments, houses, etcetera. My relationship with him is as an independent contractor on a 1099 basis. Basically, I've worked for him for the past three years and we’ve always worked via a verbal contract. I charge him per hour to run around pick out paint colors, tiles, window coverings, etcetera. Recently, I had been working for him and he refused to pay me. I believe he refused to pay me because I was picking out tiles and colors for him, and he would go behind my back after I gave him prices and go try to find the same things cheaper. It is common practice to go pick out materials, tiles and such (I have a tax id number as a dba) and mark it up 10% or so and bill for that as part of the job. He's paid me like that all along for three, three and half, four years, but we got into an altercation at one of the suppliers I use. I was there and he came in. He did not know I was in the back room. He was attempting to underbid me on tiles that I had presented to him. Again, I have gotten paid on an hourly basis for the running around and looking at jobs and as part of my compensation have marked up materials. He has cut me out before by taking my pricing and using it to get a better deal. After we had words about his sneakiness he refused to pay me about $2,000. He tried to give me half of this amount with the words “full and final payment” scribbled across the back of the check. I refused to cash it. I am aware of other people he has owed money to and has not paid because he lost control of the situation. I do invoice him and have hours, tasks etc. to substantiate billings and historical information that verifies how he’s paid me all along.

I took him to small claims court, and filed a lawsuit against him to get the money he owes me. Because we're talking about multiple properties, I did the best I could not being an attorney to sue the proper parties. Many times he's paid me with a check written against “one” corporation even if I did work for two properties that were owned by two different corporations that he own’s. It never dawned on me that I was working for the corporations he owned, but working for him personally. Well, the issues in court have come up that I'm suing the wrong party. Initially, I sued him personally because in my mind, I work for him personally for all of those years; never gave it a second thought that I was working for this corporation or that corporation because each one of his properties is owned by a different corporation he is Registered Agent of. The opposing attorney, I don't have an attorney, I'm doing it myself, presented a motion to dismiss because I was suing the wrong person. The Judge ruled against this but commented that I need to be certain of who I have a claim against since they can sue me back? As I mentioned in my mind, I've always worked for him personally.

The judge dismissed that motion and basically told me I needed to sue the right party. I researched the county tax records to find out who owned the building that I was working on and it was a name that did not exist on the Florida business website, corporations and fictitious names. The name of that entity could have been a misspelling because in the title, it used the word/title “Investment”. The corporation of his that had been registered was “Investments”. So, I then sued against the name of the corporation with “Investment” as part of the name because that was what was on the tax records as the owner of the building. The defendant also pulled a building permit against “Investment” without an S, so I am wondering if there is any legal findings that would dismiss a typo in the tax records, and I'm not sure if it was a typo, but I'm assuming that if he knew that it was wrong, it would have been corrected.

The corporation with the “Investments” title which had been dissolved a couple of years ago according to Florida’s Professional Regulation website. After the lawsuit was filed, but before the trial the attorney for the defendant said they reconstituted that corporation. However I noted that it is under another corporate number and a slightly different name?

At a second pre-trial I ended up suing him personally again because the property tax records reflect a name for an entity that, number one, did not exist as a corporation in the Florida records, number two, did not exist under a fictitious name. I need help but I’m currently unemployed cannot afford legal counsel and don’t want to have it thrown out and/or be countersued?

I have one other question and that is if I have filed against one of his corporations and him personally (2 properties are reflected in $2000 he owes), and we've been set for trial, I would like to know how I can go about or if I can change who I'm suing at this late date without getting into trouble? We are set for trial 60 days from now and again I don't know the answer to these questions and I don't have an attorney, but I would like to get some information.

Number one, can I change who I'm suing if the trial date was set? Number two, on the Florida tax records, if there is a name that does not exist as a fictitious name, nor a corporate registered name, am I legal in suing him personally because it does not exist? However, like I mentioned above, it could be a typo. It could be that the “S” was dropped off “investments” and it was just put in the property tax record as “investment” the rest of the name is the same. He did pull a permit against “investment”. Three, can he file a countersuit and what would I be responsible for? I would appreciate any help anyone can give. Thank youWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
 


HomeGuru

Senior Member
Place of residence is Florida.

I know this will be a bit convoluted, please forgive me.

I'm an interior decorator. Not a designer, not licensed, and I have worked for a gentleman who owns a number of real estate holdings in the state of Florida, duplexes and apartments, houses, etcetera. My relationship with him is as an independent contractor on a 1099 basis. Basically, I've worked for him for the past three years and we’ve always worked via a verbal contract. I charge him per hour to run around pick out paint colors, tiles, window coverings, etcetera. Recently, I had been working for him and he refused to pay me. I believe he refused to pay me because I was picking out tiles and colors for him, and he would go behind my back after I gave him prices and go try to find the same things cheaper. It is common practice to go pick out materials, tiles and such (I have a tax id number as a dba) and mark it up 10% or so and bill for that as part of the job. He's paid me like that all along for three, three and half, four years, but we got into an altercation at one of the suppliers I use. I was there and he came in. He did not know I was in the back room. He was attempting to underbid me on tiles that I had presented to him. Again, I have gotten paid on an hourly basis for the running around and looking at jobs and as part of my compensation have marked up materials. He has cut me out before by taking my pricing and using it to get a better deal. After we had words about his sneakiness he refused to pay me about $2,000. He tried to give me half of this amount with the words “full and final payment” scribbled across the back of the check. I refused to cash it. I am aware of other people he has owed money to and has not paid because he lost control of the situation. I do invoice him and have hours, tasks etc. to substantiate billings and historical information that verifies how he’s paid me all along.

I took him to small claims court, and filed a lawsuit against him to get the money he owes me. Because we're talking about multiple properties, I did the best I could not being an attorney to sue the proper parties. Many times he's paid me with a check written against “one” corporation even if I did work for two properties that were owned by two different corporations that he own’s. It never dawned on me that I was working for the corporations he owned, but working for him personally. Well, the issues in court have come up that I'm suing the wrong party. Initially, I sued him personally because in my mind, I work for him personally for all of those years; never gave it a second thought that I was working for this corporation or that corporation because each one of his properties is owned by a different corporation he is Registered Agent of. The opposing attorney, I don't have an attorney, I'm doing it myself, presented a motion to dismiss because I was suing the wrong person. The Judge ruled against this but commented that I need to be certain of who I have a claim against since they can sue me back? As I mentioned in my mind, I've always worked for him personally.

The judge dismissed that motion and basically told me I needed to sue the right party. I researched the county tax records to find out who owned the building that I was working on and it was a name that did not exist on the Florida business website, corporations and fictitious names. The name of that entity could have been a misspelling because in the title, it used the word/title “Investment”. The corporation of his that had been registered was “Investments”. So, I then sued against the name of the corporation with “Investment” as part of the name because that was what was on the tax records as the owner of the building. The defendant also pulled a building permit against “Investment” without an S, so I am wondering if there is any legal findings that would dismiss a typo in the tax records, and I'm not sure if it was a typo, but I'm assuming that if he knew that it was wrong, it would have been corrected.

The corporation with the “Investments” title which had been dissolved a couple of years ago according to Florida’s Professional Regulation website. After the lawsuit was filed, but before the trial the attorney for the defendant said they reconstituted that corporation. However I noted that it is under another corporate number and a slightly different name?

At a second pre-trial I ended up suing him personally again because the property tax records reflect a name for an entity that, number one, did not exist as a corporation in the Florida records, number two, did not exist under a fictitious name. I need help but I’m currently unemployed cannot afford legal counsel and don’t want to have it thrown out and/or be countersued?

I have one other question and that is if I have filed against one of his corporations and him personally (2 properties are reflected in $2000 he owes), and we've been set for trial, I would like to know how I can go about or if I can change who I'm suing at this late date without getting into trouble? We are set for trial 60 days from now and again I don't know the answer to these questions and I don't have an attorney, but I would like to get some information.

Number one, can I change who I'm suing if the trial date was set? Number two, on the Florida tax records, if there is a name that does not exist as a fictitious name, nor a corporate registered name, am I legal in suing him personally because it does not exist? However, like I mentioned above, it could be a typo. It could be that the “S” was dropped off “investments” and it was just put in the property tax record as “investment” the rest of the name is the same. He did pull a permit against “investment”. Three, can he file a countersuit and what would I be responsible for? I would appreciate any help anyone can give. Thank youWhat is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
**A: your first sentence is correct.
 

CraigFL

Member
I read your whole post and you do have a major problem identifying who you were working for. Even though the same person was standing in front of you all the time, he may have been acting as a representative of many different companies. He could also just be playing the jerk and you'll never guess what company he was working for. I've had similar situations and asked that the person I was dealing with write the company name on the invoice but my business tries to invoice immediately on the spot, when the work is done and we go to business locations quite often that are more identifiable. I really don't know how you're going to figure this out because you really need to know whose agent he was for that particular job. Even knowing the location of the building where they were going to be installed wouldn't be good enough because the building owner may not be the one contracting to do the work. He could be working as Joe's Decorating, a subcontractor that wants to subcontract to you.

I realize your method is to mark up your materials to make some profit. You may want to consider doing this differently such as making your part of the work(your expertise) more valuable by charging for it as a seperate line on the invoice. This way, he still has to pay for your design service, but if he doesn't like your materials cost, he can try elsewhere. You have to realize that when you define material cost and specify them, somebody can easily go elsewhere for a competitive bid. So you really can't be angry with him about doing this because to him, it looked like your design service was next to free... These days, you really can't blame people for trying to save money. They're really not going "behind your back" so you may want to reconsider what's happening and try to make amends and continue to do business.
 
Hope this helps

Your situation brings several challenges, but they should not be insurmountable.

First, you may be able to amend your complaint to include the correct business entity (if you know it), but you will need the court's permission to do so. File a Motion to amend the complaint for purposes of including necessary party or you can dismiss your current suit and re-file (if within the statute of limitations). However, you would face new filing fees and would be prevented from recovering your previous fees even if you win.

If this property owner is purposely concealing which business entity you were working for, the judge may allow you some leeway in your complaint (but not much).

One way to tell who you were working for is to look at the check that you were given and see who the payor is. This would be strong evidence as to who you were working for at the time. Additionally, if he overtly leads you to believe that you are working for a specific entity then you can use his actions and statements to you as evidence of this.

You did not indicate where in Florida you are, but this sounds like a property owner in Palm Beach/Broward County that I am aware of. If it is this person, many of his holdings are owned by LLCs and the like. However, he always gives the impression that they are holdings of his primary business which is not incorporated. I do not want to mention any names specifically, but I am curious if this is the same person.

Bottom line is, you have some recourse and should not give up complete hope. However, you have to weigh the cost of aggravation into the equation of whether you want to pursue it. There is also the possibility of contacting an attorney in the area who may be willing to assist you for a reasonable fee, and if you win in court their fees should be awarded. Provided you amend the complaint to include them.

Please post an update if you can to let me know if this is a Palm Beach/Broward county matter, and if the primary business is in Boca.
 

Joyus53

Junior Member
Your situation brings several challenges, but they should not be insurmountable.

First, you may be able to amend your complaint to include the correct business entity (if you know it), but you will need the court's permission to do so. File a Motion to amend the complaint for purposes of including necessary party or you can dismiss your current suit and re-file (if within the statute of limitations). However, you would face new filing fees and would be prevented from recovering your previous fees even if you win.

If this property owner is purposely concealing which business entity you were working for, the judge may allow you some leeway in your complaint (but not much).

One way to tell who you were working for is to look at the check that you were given and see who the payor is. This would be strong evidence as to who you were working for at the time. Additionally, if he overtly leads you to believe that you are working for a specific entity then you can use his actions and statements to you as evidence of this.

You did not indicate where in Florida you are, but this sounds like a property owner in Palm Beach/Broward County that I am aware of. If it is this person, many of his holdings are owned by LLCs and the like. However, he always gives the impression that they are holdings of his primary business which is not incorporated. I do not want to mention any names specifically, but I am curious if this is the same person.

Bottom line is, you have some recourse and should not give up complete hope. However, you have to weigh the cost of aggravation into the equation of whether you want to pursue it. There is also the possibility of contacting an attorney in the area who may be willing to assist you for a reasonable fee, and if you win in court their fees should be awarded. Provided you amend the complaint to include them.

Please post an update if you can to let me know if this is a Palm Beach/Broward county matter, and if the primary business is in Boca.

Thanks for the input. No, I am in the Tampa bay area and yes each of his properties is owned by a seperate entity.

Part of the confusion is if I was working on 2 or more properties/projects at a time I would invoice on one invoice breaking out the hours worked and charges for each. We've worked this way for years. Most times I would be paid with a check drawn on just one of the corporations/properties. At times the check would be drawn on a completely unrelated, non-invoiced property? Personnally, I never gave it a thought that I was working for this or that corporation. He (the defendant, registered agent) always gave me directions directly. My feeling is that I worked/contracted with him as an individual. Never gave it a second thought. Not a valid defense I am told. Or is it?

Re: amending complaint. We already have a trial date set. The complaint had been amended once but I am still not sure who I should sue but am resonablly certain that the complaint needs to be tweaked to cover all the bases. Can I amend even though trial date is set? What is statute of limitations?
 
Follow-up

It is possible to amend the complaint to include a necessary party or correct an error even though a trial date is set, but you need the permission of the court and must notify the other party of your intent. You can ask the local clerk's office for some assistance and they may help you out (but may not also).

You may also consider filing the complaint against the individual as well as the "unknown corporation" if the judge will allow it. In small claims court in Florida you must request permission of the court to conduct discovery. If the judge allows it you can ask for a postponement of the trial in order to conduct the discovery. Then you serve subpoenas for information regarding the proper entity responsible to you for payment. The problem for you is that this can be costly and very time consuming.

Since you say that you have a trial date, I assume that you have been through the pre-trial process and have been through mediation? If you have not mediated the situation you should take advantage of the process and try to settle. If he was previously willing to pay you $1,000.00 he may be willing to offer a little more to at least pay your filing fees and court costs. If you take him to trial and do prevail you are entitled to your costs and he knows it.

Obviously, you don't want to do any more work for this person or his businesses. i also recommend that you begin using contracts for your work which clearly identify the party responsible for payment and include provisions for attorney's fees in the event of any disputes arising from the contract.

Good Luck and keep us posted
 

Joyus53

Junior Member
I have one last question for now. You had discussed "Statued of Limitations" on amending the claim. Last pre-trial was 31st July. Court date is set for Sept 16th. How long would I have to amend? FYI, claim has been amended once already.

Thanks again
 
I have one last question for now. You had discussed "Statued of Limitations" on amending the claim. Last pre-trial was 31st July. Court date is set for Sept 16th. How long would I have to amend? FYI, claim has been amended once already.

Thanks again
The statute of limitations applies to the time frame in which you have to bring a suit for damages. It could apply if you are forced to voluntarily dismiss your claim and re-file it. When were you "contracted" to do the work and when was it completed?
 

Joyus53

Junior Member
The statute of limitations applies to the time frame in which you have to bring a suit for damages. It could apply if you are forced to voluntarily dismiss your claim and re-file it. When were you "contracted" to do the work and when was it completed?

Work was on going. Direction for years had been verbal, no written contract. This particular time period for invoicing was started in December and completed in February 2008. 1st pre-trial was May 22nd at which time judge recommended 2nd pre-trial and opportunity to amend claim as to proper defendant. Without going into anymore detail I believe I erred and need to amend/adjust defendant for claim/trial. I think you mentioned I would need to ask the court and info. the other party. How does one go about doing this? Do I go through clerk? Do I call judges chambers? Paperwork? Thank you so much for your guidance.
 
Sorry for the Delay in Responding

You can contact the judge's chambers for general guidance in how he/she usually prefers to see these requests. Some judges have specific rules regarding them. You will likely need to draft a "Motion" to the court requesting permission to amend the claim. Check with the court house to see if the law library is open to the general public. There should be many resources there to help with you the Small Claims Court Rules of Procedure and also sample Motions that you can use.

If you are near Stetson, the have a law library that should be open to the public and the librarians there can give you general guidance as well. Most law librarians are attorney's but they are generally not allowed to offer legal advice.

Good Luck with your claims.
 

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