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Small Claims Jurisdiction

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lupin77

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? California

A friend of mine recently sold a car part via ebay to an individual in New York. The buyer requested that the part be painted to match his vehicle and paid extra for the service along with accepting that it would take some extra time to recieve the part.

The buyer used a business Paypal Account to pay for the part. The buyer either works for or is one of the owner of this business.

The buyer became impatient and filed a chargeback with paypal for nondelivery of the item. My friend shipped the item and provided a tracking number to the buyer and paypal. Paypal cancelled the chargeback but for some reason, only refunded 95% back to my friend. After much arguing and dispute, the buyer agreed to refund the remaining 5% back to my friend, once again via paypal.

Everything seemed settled until paypal suddenly took the 95% payment out of his account, citing that the buyer had successfully filed a chargeback with his credit card and recovered the funds from paypal.

So basically my friend has only 5% of the payment, paypal will not help him recover the remaining 95% and the buyer is avoiding his phone calls. (he actually got ahold of the buyer recently but the buyer keeps feeding him lies, claiming that he once again, sent payment via paypay but for some reason it's not "clearing" )

From my knowlege, I think Paypal, the buyer and the business that originally paid for the item can be held liable for the remaining 95% of the payment. (is this correct?)All payment history has been recorded and proof of delivery of the item and written acknowlegement from the buyer regarding the recieving of the item is documented. The amount he's trying to recover is about $1400 so I reccomended to my friend that he bring the buyer or the business that originally paid for the item, to small claims court to recover the remaining 95%. (is this what you would reccomend?) The issue I see with small claims is that the transaction was handled via ebay and that both the buyer and business that paid are located on the other side of the U.S. in NY......

Any suggestions?

My friend has also lost quite a but of sales/business because paypal froze his account during all these disputes and they also prevented him from selling more on ebay.....could the buyer be held liable for these damages as well?
 
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racer72

Senior Member
Your friend will have to sue in NY. California does not allow small claims cases to be filed against out of state defendants. Even if the buyer could be sued in California, the judgment is worthless in NY. Something else to consider, travel and lodging costs are not recoverable. Your friend may wish to talk to a NY lawyer. Consider all the potential expenses involved, it wil probably end up costing him more money to seek any kind of legal remedy. Such is the risk of selling across state lines.
 

lupin77

Junior Member
racer72 said:
Your friend will have to sue in NY. California does not allow small claims cases to be filed against out of state defendants. Even if the buyer could be sued in California, the judgment is worthless in NY. Something else to consider, travel and lodging costs are not recoverable. Your friend may wish to talk to a NY lawyer. Consider all the potential expenses involved, it wil probably end up costing him more money to seek any kind of legal remedy. Such is the risk of selling across state lines.
Hmmm, so what about the other damages I mentioned?
 

racer72

Senior Member
lupin77 said:
Hmmm, so what about the other damages I mentioned?
What other damages? Your friend can sue the guy in NY for any thing he thinks he should be compensated. Whether he wins or not is another question and only the judge that hears the case can make that decision.
 

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