You bought a used car, ten days later it stopped running.
I drove back and forth to work a couple times.
The car went dead.
He texted me and told me, "Be prepared because I'm gonna get
parking tickets in your name."
You threatened her that since the car was still in her name,
you were gonna leave it all over town and get parking tickets
- which would have affected her? - Right.
You expect me to help you?
I don't know.
[announcer] This is Judy Justice.
[theme music playing]
[announcer] Joshua Moon and Sarah Hansberry
are suing car seller Michelle Meleh
for the cost of a vehicle and repairs.
[Kevin] Court come to order. All rise.
[Judge Judy] Have a seat, please.
- Hello, Kevin. - Hello, judge. Hello.
Case number 1126. Moon, Hansberry versus Meleh.
[Judge Judy] Thank you.
How did you find this car, Mr. Moon?
Facebook marketplace.
Have you ever purchased a car by Facebook before?
- No, ma'am. - Did you know the defendant
- before you purchased her car? - [Joshua] No, ma'am.
[Judge Judy] Where do you live, in what jurisdiction?
Minnesota.
- And you live in Minnesota as well? - Correct.
[Judge Judy] You live close to each other, I assume.
Within a half an hour.
That's pretty close. What kind of car was it?
It's a 2011 Chevy Aveo.
And what was the purchase price you agreed to?
- 1,200. - [Judge Judy] Is that correct?
It was 1,300.
On what date did you go and look at the car?
- July 15th. - [Judge Judy] When she listed the car,
- what did she list the car for? - [Joshua] 1,300.
[Judge Judy] How much money did you bring with you?
- I brought 1,300. - How much did you give her?
- 1,200? - Tell me why.
Because it was an older car, it had higher mileage.
So I talked her down on the price.
- [Judge Judy] But you gave her 1,200? - Yes, ma'am.
- [Judge Judy] Not eight? - [Joshua] No.
[Judge Judy] Did you take the money out of the bank?
No, I had another vehicle. I took out a title loan against it.
You took a title loan against another car?
My other car, yes.
[Judge Judy] When did you do that?
[Joshua] July 13th.
[Judge Judy] Can I see proof of that, please?
- You took out a loan for $5,000. - [Joshua] Yes, ma'am.
And you have to pay them back $12,220?
It's 330% interest rate on the loan.
Well, the annual percentage rate is a 107.7%.
- [Joshua] Yup. - What other bills do you have to pay?
Rent, utilities, food.
What happened to this car?
Right now, it's in Wisconsin.
I still have it.
- You're still paying this loan? - Yes.
[Judge Judy] You took the car on the 15th.
Let us assume that you paid her $1,200 for the car.
- She was asking 1,300. - Right.
[Judge Judy] I'll get to the middle of story in a second.
I'm going to the end of the story.
You resold the car to whom?
Uh, her name was Naomi.
I don't know her last name offhand.
[Judge Judy] Where did you find her?
Um, on Craigslist I believe.
I posted the car after we took it back.
- On what date? - We took the car back August 20th.
So I'm guessing probably August 22nd, 21st
right after I took the car back.
[Judge Judy] How much were you asking for the car?
[Michelle] 1,300.
And how much did she pay you for the car?
[Michelle] I think she gave us 1,300.
You have to understand, if I determine that he gave you $1,200,
you have to give him his money back.
You understand that?
Initially, yes. But there was expenses that I had.
I don't give a rat's behind about your expenses.
You're not gonna sell a car for $2,500 or $2,600.
- That's worth 1,200. - [Michelle] Right. I agree.
[Judge Judy] If you took the car back from him for whatever reason,
you're gonna let me know what the reason is.
You can't sell the same car twice.
Okay. So now you're gonna tell me what happened with the car.
I drove back and forth to work a couple times.
And in the midst of having to work an eight hour shift, the car went dead.
- I had to get jumped. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
On what date was that?
Ten days after that we had purchased it. So, it was the 25th
that he realized the problems, because I remember
- the phone call we made. - [Judge Judy] Just a second.
And this car doesn't have any guarantees,
- warranties, anything else? - [Sarah H.] No. No.
You bought a used car. You bought an old car
- for 1,200 bucks. - [Joshua] Uh-hmm.
Ten days later, it stopped running.
You know, she's not responsible for that.
- Uh-hmm. - [Judge Judy] Right?
- [Joshua] Right. - Yes.
- [Judge Judy] You agree? - Yes.
Okay. So what happened next?
The next day, we jumped it and took it home,
and within an hour sitting in the parking lot
- where we lived, it was dead. - Okay.
- [Joshua] It had electrical issue. - Okay.
So, I rented a U-Haul and towed it five hours down to my mechanic
'cause we've been friends 20 years.
He fixed it. He called me and told me it was done,
but between the kids being in school and me working,
we couldn't get down there right away to pick it up.
- How much later? - [Joshua] Couple weeks.
It was approximately probably a month later.
- A month. - Because it was right after
I had had surgery and that was part of what was taking up time.
Okay. So now it's at least a month and a half
- since you purchased this car? - [Sarah H.] Yes.
Okay. And so we went and picked it up.
We went down there, and we pulled in the parking lot
and Sarah said, "Where's the car?"
So I went inside the shop and my mechanic came out
and told me that Ms. Mehle came and picked it up,
paid the bill and took the car up and took it back home.
Ball's in your court.
On the sixth day after he had the car I think July 21st,
he texted me and told me that, um, "Be prepared
because I'm going to get $400 in parking tickets in your name."
- You sold me a-- - [Judge Judy] May I see that, please?
- [Michelle] Yes, you sure can. - Four days later?
You didn't have trouble with the car four days later.
So it was six days. So it was the 15th they bought it,
on the 21st was this first message from him.
And, um, so this is when they bought the car
and then that's when that message started with he's gonna...
Could you check out the Lemon Law in Minnesota?
Sure.
[Judge Judy] What do you think the Lemon Law
in Minnesota is, sir?
I don t--really don't have any idea.
What did you mean when you threatened her
you will be getting $400 worth of parking tickets in the mail?
I said it out of anger because I contacted her by phone
and told her that, "The car's having electrical issues."
And, "Can you please like do something to help me?"
Her comment was, "You bought the car from me,
it's not my issue, it's your issue now."
She's right. Unless Minnesota has a private Lemon Law.
So, it was created to protect when you buy or lease a car
that it's still under the original manufacturer's warranty.
Not intended to eliminate all problems you'll ever encounter
with your vehicle or from private parties.
But if the private party, if it was still under a manufacturer's warranty,
- it seems as though-- - Well, not, not a $1,200 car?
[Sarah] Exactly.
Okay. So you bought the car as is, you were having trouble.
You drove the car home, you drove the car to work a few times.
And what you did was you did not register the car
- in your name even though-- - Yes.
--she had given you the title and the papers.
And you threatened her that since the car was still in her name,
you were gonna leave it all over town and get parking tickets
which would have affected her.
- Right. - [Judge Judy] Right.
You expect me to help you?
She said I'll give you the money back for the car.
- Uh-hmm. - And you said, "No."
We had had the car at the mechanic at that point.
I don't care where the car.
She offered you your money back for the car.
[announcer] And later today...
Mr. Chavez says you gave him the car.
You may have been a little drunk when you gave him the car,
but you gave him the car and then when he wouldn't give it back to you,
you vandalized it.
[theme music playing]
[announcer] Joshua Moon and Sarah Hansberry
claim car seller Michelle Meleh sold them a lemon that needed repairs.
Michelle says they did not change the registration to their names
after owning the car for weeks.
You expect me to help you?
I don't know.
Can I speak, please?
Sure.
So, Josh originally had called Ms. Meleh and said,
"There's a problem with the car, can you tell us what's going on?"
She had said, "No, there's not supposed to be any problems.
I don't know of anything about this, you know.
You bought the car. It's up to you."
So we had said, "Okay, fine."
[Judge Judy] No, you didn't say, "Okay, fine."
No, I found out he had sent the text.
And I talked to him.
And I said, "We need to call and find out what's going on."
And so that's when we called and found out and...
- [Judge Judy] Found out what? - And found out
that there had been no problems.
It was then that we decided we were gonna
take it down to go get looked at.
And she at one point had told us that she would give us the money back
for the car if we were to give her the car back.
We said, "No, we wanna register it. We're going to register it."
[Judge Judy] Oh, just a minute. So she said,
"I'll give you the money back for the car."
- [Sarah H.] Uh-hmm. - [Judge Judy] And you said, "No."
We had had the car at the mechanic at that point.
I don't care where you had the car.
She offered you your money back, for the car.
Oh, hang on. Let me find...
There's--can I say one other thing? I'm, um--no.
You were in effect making her a guarantor
for the car by not registering it in your name,
so that if you got tickets or anything else,
it would be in her name.
She would be the one who was penalized.
- Yes, and we-- - Yes?
- No. We had--no, when we, um... - Yes.
Good. You just made yourself an extra 1,200 bucks.
No. We had when, um, when we brought it down to the mechanics,
then we had contacted her after saying we wanted to switch the title over.
We went to the DMV to switch the title and were told that she had--
You can't tell me what anybody told you.
That's all hearsay. You had the car--
- Uh-hmm. - --from the 15th, 16th, 17th,
18th, 19th, 20th.
He drove it to work several times.
- You had the car in the mechanic-- - Uh-hmm.
--for a month. You still had the title.
You were still capable of transferring the title.
This is the title that she gave us.
And on the back, it states where she signed it
for the 1,200 that we paid her--
- May I see it? - --and their name.
And we took it to the DMV to transfer it into our name
and found out that she had called 11 days after we purchased the vehicle
and requested a new title so we could not transfer it into our name.
Oh, well, that's possible. That's after your husband's text.
Well, then we contacted her to meet us at the DMV.
- So we could-- - [Judge Judy] On what date?
You bought the car July 15th.
July 16th, it should have been registered,
17th it should've been registered, 18th, it should have been registered,
19th, it should have been registered.
I even offered to pay for the title transfer
so that they would get it out of my name.
We went to the DMV and waited
- for her a number of times. - Date! Date!
I'm getting it. I'm getting it. It was...
Whatever it is. You didn't get the car out of her name
when you were supposed to.
You threatened her to encumber her license and her other vehicles
- when you had no right to do that. - Right.
You can't fully benefit but you put her through
a lot of difficulty. She had to go retrieve the car,
resell it,
there's no question that everybody agrees
at least that you gave her $1,200 for the car.
And you have to pay her for some of her troubles.
Because the trouble was caused by you.
[Michelle] I had to pay the mechanic to get the car out.
- It was just... - [Judge Judy] How much did you pay?
[Michelle] It was--it was just a brake pedal sensor.
It wasn't an electrical issue. It was like a small fix,
but his mechanic charged $291.55.
[Judge Judy] Three hundred dollars?
So that's $900.
And you had to go to the mechanic.
And how far is the mechanic?
He took it to a mechanic that he liked?
Five and a half hours away.
[Judge Judy] Five and a half hours away?
So you drove five and a half hours one way
and five and a half hours the other way?
- Correct. - [Judge Judy] Is that right?
Yes, it was a long drive in Wisconsin.
You get nothing.
Your case is dismissed. We're over.
[Kevin] The court is adjourned.
I definitely think it could've been handled better.
I think that she's a smart woman and always gets it right.
I think we should at least get money back for the car
because we don't have the car.
No, it was a good car. I miss that car.
[Judge Judy] I'm wondering whether it would be wise
to put in that bill of sale
that the car must be registered in your name
within 48 hours,
or the seller can reclaim the car
and retain the purchase price
which gives you some incentive to do it.
Because otherwise, you, as the seller,
if someone like these people did not change
the registration for over a month,
if that car is in an accident and hurt somebody,
- well, they're gonna sue the driver. - [Sarah] Uh-hmm.
[Judge Judy] But they're also going to sue
the owner of the car successfully.
Good lesson.
Case number 1162, Hagen versus Chavez.
Please step forward.
[announcer] Aris Hagen is suing his former friend,
Johnny Chavez, for the cost of a car.
[Judge Judy] Mr. Hagen, you purchased a car.
Did you purchase it at auction?
No, I purchased it from a friend of mine.
[Judge Judy] What kind of car was it?
It was a Saturn Vue.
- [Judge Judy] What year? - [Aris] 2005.
[Judge Judy] How much did you pay him for it?
[Aris] I paid $600 for it.
[Judge Judy] Your complaint is that Mr. Chavez stole the car?
- Yes. - [Judge Judy] In effect,
Mr. Chavez says you gave him the car.
You may have been a little drunk when you gave him the car.
But you gave him the car,
and then when he wouldn't give it back to you,
you vandalized it.
So he's got a cross complaint.
That's what the case is about, right?
- [Aris] Yes, ma'am. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
So now I'm going to go to you, Mr. Chavez.
Now I know he bought the car in August of this year.
He paid $600 for it.
You went out drinking on what night?
I'm not sure what night, Your Honor.
Figure it out!
Was it August, September, October?
September.
[Judge Judy] So, it was within a month
- of him getting the car? - Yes, ma'am.
And it was on a Saturday night?
I think it was a Saturday, yes.
[Judge Judy] Well, let's be sure.
Sarah, what are the dates in September on Saturday night?
We're not talking about a year ago.
We're talking about a month ago.
- The 4th. - Okay.
Mr. Chavez, was it the 4th of September?
- Yes, it was. - That sound right?
- Yeah, I'll agree with that. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
Now, do you remember how Mr. Chavez
got into possession of the car?
- Yes, I do. - Tell me about it.
You just finished the story.
- This whole long story... - That was a second offer of the car.
...that wasn't in here.
- [Johnny] Second offer of the car. - That you made up--
that you made up a price with him.
- That was the first offer. - [Judge Judy] You're gonna--
- don't try to talk over me. - Well, you're not listening.
Don't try to talk over me.
[theme music playing]
[announcer] Aris Hagen claims his former friend,
Johnny Chavez, owes for the cost of a car.
Johnny is countersuing,
claiming Aris vandalized the vehicle in revenge.
[Judge Judy] Okay.
Do you remember how Mr. Chavez
got into possession of the car?
- Yes, I do. - Tell me about it.
[Aris] Well, I told him at first
that I wanted to sell the car.
He goes, "Uh, I have a friend that might wanna buy it."
He goes, "Could I show it to him?"
I said, "Yeah, you can."
I go, "Title's in the glove box,
just in case you get pulled over, you know..."
[Judge Judy] Slowly. So I can hear you.
Just in case you get pulled over then,
you know, you have the title.
So, you have possession of the vehicle and all that.
So you hadn't transferred the title to your name?
Not at the time, no.
[Judge Judy] Did he tell you his friend's name?
- Teresa. - [Judge Judy] Who's Teresa?
Um, she is a--she is a friend of mine.
What does Teresa do?
[Johnny] I take care of Teresa. She's blind.
So there's no way she was gonna buy a car.
[Judge Judy] When you say you take care of her,
what do you do for her?
[Johnny] I help her get things, um,
I give her rides to the store.
Do you get paid for doing that
- by any governmental agency? - [Johnny] I don't. I do not. I do not.
[Judge Judy] What car do you use to take her?
[Johnny] I used my Dodge Magnum.
Um, the engine has blown on it.
So when Aris came to me about a car, it was the perfect time.
[Judge Judy] Oh, you didn't have a car at that time?
So it was a perfect time for you to contemplate...
[Johnny] To shop for a car, yes.
[Judge Judy] To shop around for a car...
- Absolutely. - [Judge Judy] ...for Teresa,
'cause you were doing her business?
- Absolutely. - [Judge Judy] Okay.
Now, somebody take out the title,
whoever has the title and hand it to Kevin.
Thank you.
Kevin, why don't you just go back to your...
- [Kevin] Okay. - ...um, spot and hold onto that.
So now you're looking at the car and he says to you,
"I know somebody who might need that."
He says it was Teresa.
You say it was Teresa.
He knows Teresa, he takes care of Teresa.
And his car had blown.
So he didn't have a vehicle.
So it was a perfect time for him.
That's what he says.
And what do you say to him?
I said, uh, "Yes, you can show her the car."
He said it was her and her friend, 'cause I knew she was blind.
So, I was like, "Well, how is she gonna buy the car, you know?"
But her friend...
[Judge Judy] So you knew she was blind?
- Yes. - So when he said
he would be interested,
- did you quote him a price? - I did.
[Judge Judy] What price did you quote him?
[Aris] I said $3,000.
[Judge Judy] Well, you had the car for a relatively short period of time,
you hadn't transferred the title.
What did you do to the car?
I did a oil change on it.
And that's when I noticed, that it needed some front end work.
And I told him, you can show her the car
but I need it back immediately
because I have to repair the front end.
Mr. Hagen, you paid $600 for the car.
You did an oil change.
So that cost $30.
It needed other work on the car
that you said you wanted it back to do.
But at the time you gave it to him,
the car that you paid for was $600.
- Correct. - [Judge Judy] That's all I wanna know.
And he was supposed to show the car to Teresa's friend.
Correct.
And then what happened?
[Johnny] I went back to Aris and asked him
what he wanted for it, and would he do payments.
- [Judge Judy] And? - Never got an answer.
And?
[Johnny] I still was in possession of the vehicle,
which, therefore, I came at him with a proposition for myself.
A proposition for yourself that?
So I can buy the car.
- [Judge Judy] And? - He agreed to it.
[Judge Judy] Great. For how much?
I said I would pay 500 a month until it was paid off.
I wanted to give him an extra thousand dollars for it
because he was doing it with the payments.
- [Judge Judy] Just a minute. - [Johnny] So I wanna give him 4,000
- for the car in total. - Well, he had just paid 600 for it.
- He hadn't done any work on it. - [Johnny] I didn't know he paid 600.
I did not know that.
[Judge Judy] Well, that's what he paid for it.
- I know now. - [Judge Judy] That's what he paid for it.
He also did say he did not want to sell it to a friend.
I didn't know what he meant by that.
But that's what he said. I did not know.
So he wouldn't tell me what he got it for is what he's saying.
So, just a minute.
So, tell me (laughs) --tell me, Mr. Chavez.
- You agreed to make payments? - I did.
- [Judge Judy] And you took the car? - I did.
[Judge Judy] And he signed over the title?
- [Johnny] He did. - [Judge Judy] And you had the car.
Did you make the payments?
I have not paid him yet. We agreed on a payment.
(chuckles) Mr. Chavez, you know how dumb some people are?
It's always mindboggling to me, Sarah,
how dumb some people are.
I want to just read Mr. Chavez's answer.
"We've been friends for a year.
My car broke down. I was looking for one.
He recently bought one for $600.
We were drinking,
but he seemed of sound mind.
He said that since he could not drive the car and I needed one,
he would give me the car.
He just asked if I would drive him around
until he got his license back.
He gave me the keys and signed the title over to me.
The next day, he showed up at my house
- yelling and banging at my door." - It was after the fact, but...
[Judge Judy] Well, that's your signature, so.
[Johnny] I know. That was after the fact--that was...
That's your signature, sir.
And that's what you said.
- You said... - [Johnny] That was the second offer.
And don't try to talk over to me.
- There was two offers to the car, okay? - [Judge Judy] You didn't remember--
you just finished the story.
This whole long story that wasn't in here
that you made up a price with him.
- [Johnny] That was the first offer. - [Judge Judy] You're gonna--
- don't try to talk over me. - Well, you're not listening.
- Don't try to talk over me. - You're not listening.
[Judge Judy] Now, I'm gonna get back to you, Mr. Hagen.
Would you do me a flavor, please?
Go over to him
and show him where to sign the title back over to Mr. Hagen.
I will not.
- [Judge Judy] You will not? - No.
[Judge Judy] Okay. Very good.
- Do you recall what... - [Johnny] He gave me the car.
Do you--do you recall how much money
you were going to receive for being in court today?
- No. - [Judge Judy] You don't know?
- No, I don't. - You will not get any.
- [Johnny] I don't know. - I'm telling you.
I didn't know I was gonna get anything anyways.
- [Judge Judy] You will not get any. - Okay.
- [Judge Judy] You will not get any. - He gave me a car.
[Judge Judy] Just a second. May I have the title, please?
Okay.
Very good.
Now, I'm gonna give this to you
together with an order
that I have determined
that this car belongs to you.
- Do you understand? - I do, Your Honor.
[Judge Judy] You can take that to the Department of Motor Vehicles,
it will provide them with notice
because he has signed a document today
when he was in court that he agreed
to abide by my judgment.
So I am going to give you an order that this is your car
and that they are to issue you a new title
to this car.
Then you can call the police and have him arrested.
Do you understand?
If he refuses to give you your car back?
- I do. - That's not his car.
- [Judge Judy] Do you understand? - I do.
[Judge Judy] I don't care if he understands.
- Do you understand? - I understand.
[Judge Judy] Kevin, would you give him a copy of this, please?
Thank you very much.
We will have an order for you by the end of the day.
- Do you understand? - Yes. Thank you, Your Honor.
Very good.
Your counterclaim for vandalism is dismissed. We're done.
[Kevin] Court is adjourned.
I got my car back.
He's giving me money here and there.
I wanna be nice to him and return the favor.
He just liked it so much that he wanted to keep it.
How can I steal something that he gave me a title to?
[Sarah] That case brought up one of your favorite sayings,
"If you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory."
(chuckles) It's true.
He just signed that answer today.
Completely different story.
Just made it easy.
- Yeah, it did. - [Judge Judy] It's true.
If you tell the truth,
- you don't have to have a good memory. - You don't have to have good memory.
[announcer] Want justice? Go to JudyJustice.tv.
[theme music playing]