After the breakup,
he vandalized both your house and your car?
Yes.
He does a lotta drinking, he was drunk.
It got to the point we're yelling.
I'm done, I'm going to my mama house. I can do what I wanna do.
And you just left?
Yes.
I was escorted out by the, uh, police.
Well, that's not a "just left."
[announcer] This is Judy Justice.
[theme music playing]
[announcer] Danielle Lovett is suing her ex-fiance,
Mario Griffin,
for vandalism and emotional distress.
[Kevin] Court come to order, all rise.
Have a seat, please.
[Kevin] Hello, Judge.
Case 1078 Lovett versus Griffin.
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
[Judge Judy] Ms. Lovett, from what I read from your complaint,
it is your allegation that the defendant,
who was your boyfriend and for a period of time you lived together,
after the breakup of the relationship,
he vandalized both your house and your car.
That's what you're suing him for?
Yes.
[Judge Judy] The defendant sort of acknowledges
that he lost his temper once
and he broke some windows in your house.
He acknowledges that he did it and he said he paid you $400
for the broken windows.
As far as the other things are concerned, he denies
that he caused any damage whatsoever to your car.
And he says, as an addition, when you were living together,
he purchased certain items for the house.
He is no longer in the house and he wants those items back.
And in addition,
he says that you filed a false police report against him
which we'll get to in a moment.
That's what the case is about, so you have a counterclaim?
Yes.
So I need some dates from you first.
Tell me the month and year
that the two of you moved in together.
It was September 2017.
[Judge Judy] Did you move to his apartment,
did he move to your apartment,
or did you move into an apartment or a house together?
We moved in together.
[Judge Judy] So you found an apartment together.
Where had you been living previously?
[Danielle] He was stayin' with his mom
and I was stayin' with mine's.
[Judge Judy] And in 2017 when you moved in together,
was the lease in both your names or in one name?
Mine's.
[Judge Judy] Is there any reason for that?
I mean, it's a good-- actually, it's a very good idea
and one that I support
because if things don't work out
then somebody knows they have to go
rather than being a joint lease that you both involved in.
Okay. Well, with his background,
he wasn't, um, eligible to get on a lease.
He couldn't pass the background check.
[Judge Judy] Oh, okay. Is that correct?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] So lease it
and you still, as a couple, living in this apartment
- when the breakup took place? - Yes.
[Judge Judy] Okay. And the breakup took place
what month, day, and year?
[Danielle] January 25th, 2021.
[Judge Judy] And it was not an amicable breakup,
- so he left quickly? - Yeah.
He still had time to get his things.
[Judge Judy] Okay. Had you discussed breaking up?
No, he just left. Left on his own.
[Judge Judy] On January 25th, tell me what happened.
- She said you just decided to leave. - [Mario] Okay.
January the 25th, uh, we did have some issues.
I'm a truck driver.
So, I'd be over the road driving trucks and Danielle would call me
while I'm over the r--road disturbing me,
asking me if I'm on the phone with females, asking me--
[Judge Judy] Okay. So she's being jealous?
- [Mario] Yes. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
[Mario] And like I say, um, you know,
it was a big distraction and it's kind of frustrating
'cause I have to focus on this road, I'm a driver.
[Judge Judy] Okay. I got it that you didn't want a distraction,
m-but you've been together now four years and living together
in the same place for four years.
I'm asking these questions and there's a reason for it
- based on your counterclaim, sir. - [Mario] Okay.
[Judge Judy] Had you planned on leaving?
Well, we talked about it.
We had some conversations, and I was like, "This is not working."
- And-- - On what date
did you tell her that it wasn't working?
January the 25th.
[Judge Judy] Is that when you came home from a job?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] So you were at home?
- [Mario] Yes. - And you just left?
[Mario] I was escorted out by the, uh, police.
[Judge Judy] Well, that's not a "just left."
- [Mario] Right. - I mean,
I don't remember because I'm old but, you know,
I've been in various relationships but I don't remember
ever calling the police to escort somebody out.
Well, that was the plan was to me
to just leave like that but she got mad
and she felt like I was grabbing some of my things,
and she called the police and lied and said--
Okay. Just a second.
So that the plaintiff called the police?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Ms. Lovett,
on the 25th of January, do you want to tell me
why you called the police?
The 25th of January, the police wasn't called.
We had been arguin' and--
previously, and on that day,
he does a lotta drinkin', he was drunk,
and he just decided to, like, start wit' me.
It got to the point we're yelling, you know,
neighbors worryin' about what's goin' on, he left.
He got this things, he left, he told me to keep whateva, you know,
"Don't worry about nothin', I'm done,
I'm goin' to my mama house, I could do what I wanna do."
[Judge Judy] Okay. So he left and he said,
"I'm going to my mother's house."
[Danielle] Yeah. That time, the police was not called.
When were they called?
It was a previous time before that, in 2020.
That's not when the police was called.
Okay. But let me--
- [Danielle] He left willingly. - You know, sometimes
people need their recollection refreshed.
Does it refresh your recollection, sir, that the police were called
- in the year 2020? - Yes.
[Judge Judy] Not January 25th, 2021 when you just left?
[Mario] But also then, so.
[Judge Judy] You have any proof that they were called that day?
No, I don't have any proof
and I can also say they was called again on, um, like, May 25th.
[Judge Judy] Okay.
But, you said you were leaving?
Yes.
[Judge Judy] And between January 25th
and May of 2021,
did you and the plaintiff have any contact?
Yes. I actually moved back in...
- [Judge Judy] When? - [Mario] End of February, March.
- Is that right? - Yes.
[Judge Judy] So we took a breather?
- [Danielle] Yes. - And you took him back?
Yes.
[Judge Judy] And that didn't work out
and there was an incident in May?
Yeah. It's--it be a lot of incidents.
- [Judge Judy] Oh, yeah, well... - So...
- Just a second. - [Danielle] In May, we're not...
- Wait, just a--wait, wait, wait. - [Danielle] In May...
[Judge Judy] One second.
He only brung a mattress back, not the box spring.
He sold the mattress to his friend last year for $50.
Well, I cannot believe
I went to 10 years post graduate school for this.
Yes.
My father would be proud.
[announcer] Later...
There was no agreement or understanding
from the very beginning to the time he sold the house behind my back
that he had anything to do other than live in the house.
- [Judge Judy] Smothers? - Yes.
Let me read to you what you wrote in your sworn complaint.
[tense music playing]
[announcer] Danielle Lovett claims her ex-fiance, Mario Griffin,
vandalized her car and caused emotional distress.
Mario is countersuing for his belongings and an assault.
Is what you're saying to me, Ms. Lovett,
that between January 25th,
you and the defendant continued to have contact
and he moved back in at the end of March, of 2021?
Yes, he moved back in March.
- [Judge Judy] Until when? - March till, uh, August 3rd.
[Judge Judy] Well, then I'm confused and I'm confused because of this.
You claim in your complaint that the damage you're complaining about
happened on February 11th.
- [Danielle] Yes, he left... - Sh--just a second.
And then after that damage to your windows and/or your car,
you resumed living together in March?
Yes. That's when he came back in March.
You continued living together for several months?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Sleeping together?
- [Danielle] Yes. - [Judge Judy] Eating together?
[Danielle] Yes.
- Socializing together? - [Danielle] Yes.
Then quite frankly, I don't care what happened in February.
And neither does any court care what happened in February.
You two were keeping house.
There's a word in the law called condonation
and that means that if something happens between a couple
and they have a fight, and a spat, and they break things
and they call each other names,
and they call their in-laws names,
and then they go back to living together as a couple,
the courts don't care about it
'cause you evidently didn't care about it,
you didn't care about it enough
not to [chuckles] resume your relationship with him.
So quite frankly, I don't care
and I'm not going to assist you in fixing things
that he may have broken,
that he may have done while you were separated
if you took him back and you continued to live together.
So your case is dismissed.
Now, I'm gonna get to the counterclaim, that's easy.
Did he buy the following things, a deep freezer?
We purchased together.
- Is that correct? - [Mario] No.
[Judge Judy] Prove to me that you purchased it alone.
I have the receipt here
and it's paid for with my bank account and, um...
Okay. I'd like to take a look at it.
Okay.
Here's the receipt that [indistinct]
receipt [indistinct] system.
Now...
what was purchased at Home Depot was $151.80,
and do you have the receipt for the surround sound system?
- Um, I wasn't able to... - That's either a yes or a no.
- No. - Okay.
Do you have a receipt for a sectional sofa?
[Mario] Yes, I have.
I'd like to see it.
[Mario] Okay. Hold on,
take that there and this just--
'cause I financed it but it's a paper in here
that just says paid in full.
That one's--yeah, that's the one that said paid in full.
What is this?
This is a lease to own.
[Mario] Right. It's just a paper up there that says paid in full,
zero for the amount of the--the furniture
and the sectional and the queen size bed.
Okay. And this was
- 15th of December of 2017? - [Mario] Yes, well it was paid...
[Judge Judy] This is a customer receipt.
- [Mario] Yeah. - Well, let me ask you
the following questions before I go through all of these things.
So this is all old stuff.
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
And the iPhone that you say you bought her...
- [Mario] Yeah. - ...you say you bought her
- and then you turned off service? - [Mario] Yes.
Which is you have every right to do.
And then what year was the iPhone 11 purchased?
The iPhone 11 was purchased 2021.
[Judge Judy] In what month?
[Mario] March 27th.
[Judge Judy] When you moved back in?
Yes.
- [Danielle] No. - (chuckles) Okay.
Did you give it to her as a gift?
No. I have a business account
and by me eh--having a business account,
I'm able to get business phones
and so I said, "Hey, I can get a extra iPhone."
[Judge Judy] Great.
All right. Do you have your iPhone?
- Yeah. I still have it. - [Judge Judy] Great.
Great. Great.
Did you put it on a new payment plan?
[Danielle] I switched my phone number to it.
That's either a yes or a no.
I can't do anything with it.
He cut it off, took my phone number, and...
Just a second.
So you can't do anything with it.
Well, he's not gonna pay for it.
So now you have it, frame it,
I don't know what you wanna do with it, okay.
When you lived together, did you have a joint bank account?
- No, we did not. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
Can you tell me, I have just a couple of bills,
one is for a four-year old bedroom set.
- Right. - [Judge Judy] Which I know
that the two of you used and one is a receipt for
$151.80 for a deep freezer.
He says he paid for it.
You said we purchased it.
Explain that to me.
I gave him, like, $50 on it.
We purchased it together, as far as the deep freezer.
What about the bedroom set?
The bedroom set, he moved out.
I have a receipt where I purchased my own furniture set right here.
He brung his back.
Um, his is broken, his bed, he sold.
He only brung a mattress back, not the box spring.
He sold the mattress to his friend last year for $50.
So, the bed isn't even there.
[Judge Judy] I'm not following you.
When did you buy a new bedroom set?
[Danielle] I bought a bedroom set 'cause he moved out once
and he took what he bought.
So this was January 2018,
- I bought a sectional and a bed. - Okay.
[Danielle] He brung his back broken.
J--j--just a second.
So you were living together in 2018,
and separated for a period of time,
- is that what you're saying? - [Danielle] Yes. He--yes.
And when you separated back in January of '18 for a period of time,
'cause I got that this was a back and forth,
you're saying he took his bedroom set with him...
- [Danielle] Yes. - - ...and you purchased another one?
Purchased another.
[Judge Judy] Is that what you're saying?
Does that have a ring of familiarity to you?
Your Honor, when I moved my furniture out and bedroom set out
at the time, at--in January...
- Yes. - [Mario] ...yes, uh, we ended up
gettin' back together, and it's a two-bedroom apartment,
and she bring the furniture back, bring everything back,
bring the TV back, um, this and that,
- we back together. - [Danielle] We didn't.
[Mario] So I bought all my furniture back,
I bought everything back to the apartment.
She did purchase another bed and another furniture set section...
That the two of you used together?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
Well then let me ask you this,
so what you're telling me is that the bedroom set,
which is really the only thing I'm interested in,
I'm not interested in a two-year old freezer
that cost a hundred dollars,
the bedroom set that you purchased was in the second bedroom?
No, it was in our bedroom and r--so the...
And what did you do with the one that she purchased?
[Mario] It's in the second bedroom.
[Judge Judy] Oh, I cannot believe
I went to 10 years post graduate school for this.
Yes. [laughs]
My father would be proud.
You sold the house for $27,000.
And then the next buyer sold it for $108,000.
I feel like you stole that whole amount from me.
It doesn't matter what the next buyer did.
[Jon] It wasn't your profit selling it.
If you sold it, you should've at least told me
before you bought another house.
Are they getting it out of their system?
Yeah?
[tense music playing]
[announcer] Danielle Lovett has accused her ex-fiance, Mario Griffin,
of vandalizing her car and harassment.
Mario claims Danielle refuses to give back belongings he purchased.
Let me put it to you this way, do you have any of his bedroom...
Nothing. Nothing is there.
- [Judge Judy] Nothing is there? - Nothing.
- [Judge Judy] Nothing, she has nothing. - Not bedroom...
- She has nothing. - [Mario] She's lying.
- [Judge Judy] Okay. - No bed. Couch is there, broken.
[Judge Judy] Just a second.
The couch is there that he purchased?
[Danielle] Yes.
[Judge Judy] And it's in your apartment?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Great.
So you have five days to get it out, do you understand?
- Okay. - [Judge Judy] If you don't get it
out of her apartment with a mover within five days,
on notice to her as to what day you're coming,
you will have considered the sofa abandoned,
do you understand?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Yes.
- Can I-- - [Judge Judy] Perfect.
Then I have resolved this case.
- Your claim is dismissed. - [Mario] Yeah.
Because of the reasons that I stated.
You have my judgment, do you understand?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Perfect. Thank you.
[Kevin] Court is adjourned.
Well, it wasn't fair because he did the damages
but he's still gonna pay for it.
Um, I kind of think it's a m--money thing, you know.
You know, whether we get back together,
he still did it so that was not fair at all.
[Mario] I'm a truck driver, so I make a little money and...
He could kick rocks.
She could use it for her benefits, you know.
He's a narcissist. He could find a next victim.
Glad it's over with and hey, I'mma move on, you know.
That's basically it.
[Sarah] So can you just explain a little bit
why if he did damage the home or the car
while they were together,
is getting back together enough of an out for him
to not be responsible for that sort of damage?
[Judge Judy] Well, I took a term that I learned in law school
which is called condonation
and when you sue for the damage that your mate,
your spouse did during the course of a marriage,
you may use a course of conduct as a reason for a divorce,
but courts can't go back and rewrite history.
- [Sarah] Uh-hmm. - Now she's going back six months
and say, "Well, he broke the windows in my house
and he smashed the window in my car."
Well, evidently you weren't upset about it enough
not to let somebody who had that propensity...
- Uh-hmm. - ...back into your life
and back into your bedroom.
So, uh, you know, there's a good lesson for everybody,
especially for women, leopards don't change their spots usually.
Anyway, condonation, be smart.
Case 1088, Smothers versus Smothers.
All parties, please step forward.
[announcer] John Smothers is suing his twin brother Chad Smothers
for his portion of profits from selling a house.
Mr. Smothers, this is your brother,
it is your claim that he owes you your share of the profit
- f--from flipping a house. - Yes, Judge.
I read your complaint, I read the answer,
and it appears that you purchased two houses at auction.
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] In what year
did that take place?
2012.
[Judge Judy] And the purpose of purchasing the houses
was for you and your brother to refurbish them
and sell them at a profit?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
Do you have a written contract with your brother?
I have no written contract.
[Judge Judy] So this was an oral agreement with regard to real estate?
There was no agreement. I bought the houses.
The only reason he came to the auction
was to put the house in his name.
[Judge Judy] Just a--listen, he put the houses in his name,
the houses are in his name, that means he owns them.
If you say there was no agreement between the two of you
to flip these houses, which I actually thought you said there was,
then houses were purchased in 2012,
they were put in your brother's name, so he owns the two houses.
[Chad] Your Honor, we did have an agreement.
We, we agreed we would work together on the two houses
together at the beginning
and one would be his and one would be mine.
[Jon] That's not the agreement whatsoever.
I bought the houses for me and her
to keep--live in one and invest and sell the other one.
He had no nowhere else to live, he had nowhere to go, he's lost his job,
so he moved into a house that was
for all intensive purposes, unlivable.
There was no agreement or understanding from the very beginning
to the time he sold the house behind my back
that he had anything to do but--other than live in the house.
- [Judge Judy] Smothers? - Yes.
You're the complainant, J. Smothers?
Yes, Jon.
[Judge Judy] Let me read to you what you wrote
in your sworn complaint.
"Chad is my identical twin brother.
I was in the military and when I was done, I lost my home.
I was good at building and renovation so I had the idea
to start buying cheap properties, fix them up,
and then flip them for profit."
That's what you wrote, that's your signature.
"First time I did this, I went to an auction
with my children's mother and Chad."
That would be you,
"I had to put the houses in my brother's name
in order to avoid some pending erroneous leans.
I bought the two houses. I was going to live in one
and Chad and I were going to renovate both properties."
That's what you said. Uh, were you mistaken when you said that?
- After--no, I was not mistaken. - [Judge Judy] J--just--think,
think about what you just said
and what I just read to you that you wrote in your sworn complaint.
The houses were purchased for my, my plan, my idea.
He had nowhere else to live, yes, I--
eventually when he moved in to the house,
I agreed that if he's gonna live there and do work on it,
with no, no rent, no payment, no nothing,
that he would be able to eventually,
if, if we--when we sold the house together,
that, yeah, he would get some of the money
but it wasn't his house to sell, it was my money, my plan,
my investment, he just put his hand up
during the--during the, the auction.
- He did. - But...
- Then we did sell the house... - He took $2,700 into the house.
- [Judge Judy] Keep going. - And I made it worth enough to sell.
You sold the house for $27,000
and then the next buyer sold it for $108,000.
I feel like you stole that whole amount from me.
It doesn t matter what the next buyer did.
It wasn't your property to sell and if you sold it,
you should've at least told me before you bought another house.
You bought a whole another house
and didn't even tell me and I found out through a friend
that you have this money now
and that you didn't g--give me a single nickel off of it.
Now maybe we didn't a exact agreement
of how much you should get or how much I should get
but I didn't know you even sold the house
and you only got 30 grand for it.
[Chad] It got nowhere near 30 grand, but...
Are they getting it out of their system?
Yeah? Goodbye
You--case is barred by the statute of limitations, we're done.
[Kevin] Court is adjourned.
He was living in a house.
2017 and he sold it and didn't tell me that he even sold it.
I put all my blood, sweat, and tears into fixing that house up.
He did put an initial investment into it.
I should've been able to at least get half of the money
from the profit from him selling that house.
No, not everyone always gets a return on their investment.
Sometimes people lose money on their investments but...
I don't have a brother.
I wish this didn't keep us from being brothers
but maybe we can work it out later.
Yeah, blood is thicker than water
but blood will hurt you just as worse than anybody else.
So there is a perfect example
of why courts insist that you bring your actions
if there's a breach of a contract, if there's an accident,
if there's a claim of negligence, whatever the claim is,
within a reasonable period of time
but the theory of it is that memories are fresh,
documents are fresh,
this guy couldn't even remember from when he signed his complaint
to the story he just began to tell me.
So there is a reason why courts insist
that a case be fresh because memories are clear.
And they were far outside of that fresh period.
(chuckles) Far outside the fresh period.
[announcer] Are you having a family dispute?
Go to JudyJustice.tv.
[theme music playing]