posted on March 28, 2002 09:06:08 PM
Well, it doesn't look good so far. We were contacted by the process server company and told that they were not able to serve the Buyers. Apparently, the servers are afraid to do so. The buyers live in a gated fortress and have an attack dog on the premises. The process servers said they have attempted service eight times and they were unable to serve them; they never come out and never open the gate. The process servers also stated that they have investigated the husband before and they believe that the server would be in physical danger if they attempted to cause a disturbance or tried to jump the fence. They say that they are just one of those one in a million people that couldn't be served. Should I really be surprised with the way this situation has gone to date?
posted on March 28, 2002 09:34:42 PM
Have that paperwork served by the marshall of the court, or the county sheriff's dept civil division, whichever the courts in that county use. They will have animal control haul that dog off to the pound and tape the paperwork to his front door if he doesn't open it. The service will be legal and he'll be stuck with one hell of a bill when he goes to bail out his hound.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on March 28, 2002 09:35:05 PM
What a mess! However, if you were serving a subpoena for a superior court action, they would HAVE to accept it one way or another. It's considered contempt of court (actionable) to refuse to accept service. And I would imagine that your papers are considered in a similar light.
Anyway, if I were you, I'd contact the sheriff in the town where they live, explain the situation, and ask if they perform service for a fee. If they do (or the local police offer this), pay whatever it costs and put it on the tab for the suit. I've had to do this and I think it ran me about $50 several years ago. Not too many people, even crazy ones, will refuse service from a uniformed officer!
I think this has to take the brass-plated booby prize for the worst "buyer from hell" story I have heard in over three years of reading these boards!
posted on March 28, 2002 09:57:51 PM
I initially contacted the Sheriff's office to get the paperwork served. However, they do not serve small claims due to budget cuts. I guess my only alternative is to inform the court that the process server is too afraid of physical harm to attempt further service. The police do not intervene even if the person is afraid of bodily harm because it show partiality to one side over another. That is what I was told. Truth is somehow stranger than fiction; I never could have dreamed this one up in a million years.
posted on March 29, 2002 01:52:32 AM
Daleeric, I dont quite remmeber what you put on that check they cashed, but I saw a episode of PEOPLE'S COURT where Judge Milian (isnt she funny! I like her. she should look into being a talk show host or a star of her own sitcom! and she is sexy to boot!) had this case, where this jewish singer cancelled his gig at this club, where he was to appear 5 times, because the singer felt the club was too cold, so he cant sing properly. of course milian knew this was bogus.
anyway, the singer wanted to get paid for the 4 other appearences for his contract was pay or play, meaning the club owner still has to pay the singer even if the owner doesnt use him for the other 4 dates. the owner gave a check to the singer, which was half of what was owed, on the check the owner put , i believe, word to word what your lawyer told you to put, something like once this check is cashed, singer cant ask for more money.
judge told the singer that yes, this is a breach of contract, even though she de-bunked the singer's claim (she said this court room is cold but i dont see you losing your voice) BUT since you cashed this check with those words written, its a done deal, goodbye! So IF this is the law, since they ashed the check, you should be fine. I mean PEOPLE'S COURT cant be wrong, right?
posted on March 29, 2002 02:05:04 AM
Daleeric, I was involved in a court case, it was a car accident, it was the drivers fault, BUT he lived in another state half way across the U.S from where I live, and I lived in a town where the rich gets everything, the poor gets nothing, the police are on the payroll of the local church group. They tried to get the paperwork to the guy, telling him he has to comeback to my this town to face court hearing, and on the court day, he was a no show, so the judge and the sheriff needed someone to blame, to get some money, so they blame the traffic accident on me, even though i had witnesses. so they fined me, and after paying, someone at the audience came up and told me why they threw the book at me even though i was innocent. he told me the city needs to collect money from someone and since the guilty didnt show, I had to be the one to pay.
i decided to go back to court the next day as a audience, and i couldnt believe what i saw. all rich types who brought a lawyer, without hearing the case, the judge dismissed the case, and all minorities, regardless of the crime, was arrested on site, or tried without fairness IMHO.
so i do hope where you are to appear in court is a major city, and not some small town.
posted on March 29, 2002 04:29:52 AM
I am a little confused at this point. What is it that you are trying to serve on the buyers? I thought that an action had been initiated by the buyers and that you had a court date set for April. You had indicated that you wanted to change venue but had not been successful. So are you now trying to sue the buyers for something? Also, I thought that once a case had begun you didn't need to serve things personally on the parties - only by mail. Maybe you can clarify the status.
posted on March 29, 2002 11:42:47 AM
Kastern: she's countersuing.
Daleeric: is there another process server you can try? I know there are some out there who don't take kindly to obstacles put in their way. There's got to be a way, even if the server has to stake out the buyer's house or office and throw the paperwork at him when the opportunity arises. OTOH, if the papers served on you but found in the bushes was proper, perhaps the server could nail the paperwork to the buyer's locked gate. IIRC, California doesn't absolutely require personal service, so that might suffice.
posted on March 29, 2002 12:29:32 PM
woiuld have been a whole lot cheaper and less stressfull to have just paid him a year or so ago when this all started....
no where near as entertaining though....
spock here......
Live long and Prosper
posted on March 29, 2002 04:31:34 PM
In California, if a person can't be located for service, the notice can be posted in the classified legal notices section of the local newspaper. In the case of a person avoiding service, I believe the court can notify them by telephone, but I'm not sure. They can summon jurors and witnesses by telephone. I would call the attorney that was appointed by the court as a small claims advisor. This is exactly the type of situation they offer advice about. And, it's free!
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on March 29, 2002 06:04:10 PM
There is what is referred to in law, "Service by Publication" which allows one to serve another by publishing the subpoena in the legal seciton of their local newspaper. Please be advised however, each state may have differing rules as to length of time the publication must be published (usually 4 x for one month) and you must prove that you complied with all rules as set forth concerning font size, wording, locality of newspaper, and duration of ad. The cost of the ad/publication is also considered a valid legal expense to tally up for the Court should the verdict be ruled in your favor. Most newspapers have a legal department that can assist you with the approriate guidelines but they are not lawyers so use caution accepting the advice you get.
Also, another good contact would be the Clerk of Court. Once again, they are not allowed to give legal advice, but can supply you with the "how to" to go about perfecting service of process on a cross-claim.
posted on March 30, 2002 01:08:16 PM
The process server did manage to serve the husband. Apparently they did ten attempts and called for sheriff back-up. I will let you know how everything turns out.
With all this difficulty, I think in a way Mr. Spock is right. It certainly would have been the easy thing to do; just write a check and get them out of our hair. Yet, I can't see people like this getting away with everything just because they have in the past. Someone has to stand up to them.
posted on March 30, 2002 06:03:12 PM
If you refund the money, I would be sure to charge some kind of restocking fee. Either as just that, or as an idiot fee or racism fee.... I mean, how does this moron know you the seller aren't possibly hispanic as well? a name doesn't mean anything, maybe your family changed it or married out of it.
posted on March 31, 2002 11:05:51 AM
Stopwining: Wish this episode was Gone with the Wind, literally. When you deal with the public you are likely to get one that one nightmare tenant who will destroy your property or a nightmare buyer. Perhaps your experience will be to a lesser degree and hopefully there will be no lawsuit involved. I hope so.
posted on April 1, 2002 03:44:30 PM
Please keep us updated; I'm one of the silent legions who has their fingers crossed for you! Do you have a court date yet?
posted on April 2, 2002 01:05:32 PM
Just as I was about to comment on "substituted service" I noticed you updated your report to indicate the husband had been served.
Here is CA, you can use "substituted service". Your process server must have tried xx number of times to serve personally, then you send one copy via regular mail and one copy via certified mail. Your process server should have known this. The service is acceptable, but it takes more time, i.e. 10 days instead of 5.
posted on April 4, 2002 09:17:28 AM
Make it their decision. They refused delivery, so now inform them that they need to arrange pickup themselves. Do not give a whole lot of weight to their reasons, focus on the refused delivery.
Also, Did you advertise that the delivery crew would set up the antique? If so, then you may want to offer to go out there, if it is local, to set it up yourself. If not, then let them know it would have been a courtesy from the delivery crew.
Give them a time-limit to make arrangements and inform them that an option is to do nothing, where all monies less direct expenses will be returned.
posted on April 11, 2002 07:21:36 PM
We had our day in small claims court yesterday. It was a courthouse in a small town in my state. The court did not focus much on the situation but spend the most time number crunching. The husband denied that he ever made the comment "they sent a couple of Mexicans to put this Armoire together and I didn't want them damaging it." He said he would never say such a thing and made it sound like the delivery team threw their hands in the air and said "we have this armoire but we don't even know how to deliver it."
I had a notarized document from the shipper explaining everything that happened with the drivers.
The judge used the term "breech of contract" when refering to the refusal of delivery. So hopefully, he made his mind up then and didn't need to hear much more. They said we breeched the contract because we didn't provide assembly and they didn't want the armoire sitting unassembled in their home.
The husband said he didn't care about the judgement, he got us to drive all the way up there and that was his revenge, so to speak. I had an itemized list of charges and charged per mile for my travel.
The husband was sniffing a lot; we think he is a coke fiend. The erratic behavior would make sense then. I will let you know what happens. Thanks All!
posted on April 11, 2002 08:12:03 PM
I hope you got to at least leave all your documentation with the judge! You'd be amazed to find out how close attention they are actually paying sometimes....we had a judge that often sat on the bench and played solitaire on his laptop computer - but if you asked him a week later what a witness said, he could tell you immediately and accurately.
I can't see how the court can rule against you. Do you have an expected date for the decision?
posted on April 11, 2002 08:30:51 PM
We will hear in a few weeks. The court has the docs and will send them back to us. I guess I feel like the court should hear everything. Then, the cases would take forever to get through. They said he wasn't a King Solomon type that tries to work out a compromise, which is good.
My satisfaction was having him served. They had to call for sheriff back-up and he actually ran from them. He was banking on my writing a check to avoid going to court.
posted on April 11, 2002 09:30:50 PM
Daleeric,
My fingers are crossed for you also. Regardless of the outcome, this jerk has learned that some people refuse to be bullied. Perhaps he'll think twice about pulling this on someone else. Win, lose or draw, you took the proper course of action and remained a professional. For that, I salute you.
The light at the end of the tunnel will turn out to be an oncoming train.
posted on April 12, 2002 08:22:52 AM
Thank you very much. I often thought about what Mr. Spock said regarding paying him to get him out of our hair. I guess it would have been the logical thing to do. If doesn't go our way, if a small claims comes up I will feel differently about it. I will post the results as soon as I get them. Thanks again!
posted on April 12, 2002 08:30:29 AM
You are going to win and the scumbag is going to learn a lesson that you can't always get away with bad behavior. I look forward to hearing from you that this trash buyer ended up getting what they deserved.
posted on April 12, 2002 09:06:34 AM
What about your countersuit? Doesn't he now have to drive to your town for that court appearance?
The one time I appeared in small claims court, the judge ruled right then and there. I sure hope this goes well for you, I've followed it closely. Good luck.
posted on April 12, 2002 12:15:56 PM
Place the item for auction. Write an email to the buyer that the transaction is VOID and leave a feedback explaining what happen, such as: "Delivery made, refused and returned. Placed item back up for bid."
