Did I just hurt my chances in court?

[BSJM]

What is the name of your state?ca

I am being sued for lack of payment for a fence installed close to 4 years ago. I just got subpoenaed. I decided to contact the fence company and try to persuade them from following through. I said the following:
1. The judge will probably throw out the case since you did not give any effort to collect within the past 4 years. 2. I will sue you for breach of contract due to the wrong fence being installed as per our contract. 3. I will subpoena all your employees to court unless you give me the names of the two that worked on my project. 4. You will lose profits for the day on the employees that are subpoenaed and you will most likely have to pay their wages for the day to appear in court. 5. I will file a negative BBB report. They wrote down everything I said and I'm sure will present it in court. I don't feel I've said anything to hurt my situation, but now I wish I'd never made the call. My intention was to make them reconsider following through with the lawsuit because it might actually cost them money instead of winning money. Any thoughts? Do I need damage control?

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state?ca

I am being sued for lack of payment for a fence installed close to 4 years ago. I just got subpoenaed. I decided to contact the fence company and try to persuade them from following through. I said the following:
1. The judge will probably throw out the case since you did not give any effort to collect within the past 4 years. 2. I will sue you for breach of contract due to the wrong fence being installed as per our contract. 3. I will subpoena all your employees to court unless you give me the names of the two that worked on my project. 4. You will lose profits for the day on the employees that are subpoenaed and you will most likely have to pay their wages for the day to appear in court. 5. I will file a negative BBB report. They wrote down everything I said and I'm sure will present it in court. I don't feel I've said anything to hurt my situation, but now I wish I'd never made the call. My intention was to make them reconsider following through with the lawsuit because it might actually cost them money instead of winning money. Any thoughts? Do I need damage control?

**A: why did you not do #'s 2 & 5 immediately after the fence was completed? Why have you waited close to 4 years to do anything?

 

[BSJM]

We disputed the quality of the fence and the fact that they installed the wrong style fence after it was completed. Shortly after they called for payment. I told them on the phone that I was not satisfied with the quality of the fence and that I would not pay full price, otherwise they can tear it down and rebuild it per our contract the right way. They sent one of their workers out who patched up a few issues and I gave him an envelope containing payment minus 20%. This is the amount I felt was fair for the fence I received. I never heard back from them again until just before the statute of limitations ran out(4 years). They claim to have just found the unpaid invoice and say I have not paid anything. I don't have a receipt for the payment as it was paid in cash( I was hoping cash would make them stop pushing for full payment). Now I'm faced with going to court with no proof of payment. I intend to use the defense "affirmative equitable defense of laches" as recommended by "I'm always liable" on this board. The countersuit is to offset my expenses if I lose my case. I am having a local fence company write up an estimate of what it would take to correct the issues with the fence, including changing the style as per my contract. I want to subpoena all of their employees to make sure the guy I gave payment to is present to be questioned in court. They will not give me an employee list so I have to find out their names another way. As far as the BBB report, I held off doing that to use that as a leverage tool in hopes they would drop this case. Didn't work, so I will definitely do that soon. Any tips you have to help me with this case would be greatly appreciated.