[Acker] You weren't just a contractor.
-You guys had a thing. -No.
-Just friends. -Right.
That's my foot, and that is him massaging my foot.
-That ain't me. -That's him.
That ain't true.
You should be proud that somebody like this would want to hang out with you.
[narrator] Today on Tribunal Justice.
[narrator] This case was filed in Compton, California.
This is case number 1025 on the calendar, in the matter of Cary v. Kelly.
Parties have been sworn in. You may be seated.
-[Levy] Thank you, Byrd. -You're welcome, Judge.
Mr. Cary, you are a painter by trade.
No, I'm a carpenter by trade.
-So you're a Carpenter by trade? -Yes.
You met the defendant about three years ago.
-Yes. -Okay.
And you've been doing work for her for about three years.
-Yes. -But unlike most contractors
or carpenters who do work in people's houses,
the work that you do for the defendant, when you do that work,
-you stay at her home. -Usually.
-[Levy] Right. You live in Las Vegas. -Yes.
When she has work that she needs done, she lets you know.
You jump on a bus. You go from Vegas to her home in Los Angeles,
and that's been going on for about three years.
This past April, the defendant asked you
to come to her home to build a deck or a platform in her backyard,
that she needed because she was having a birthday party.
-Yes. -You were there for about a week
-when things turned sour. -Yes.
She told you to pack up your tools and leave.
-Yes. -Problem was,
you were taking a bus back to Las Vegas, you had quite a number of tools.
You couldn't take them on the bus, so you had to leave the tools behind.
-Yes. -She said to you,
come back within a couple of months, pick up your tools,
and that'll be the end of it and we're done.
-Yes. -[Levy] All right.
But two months came and went.
You never went to go pick up the tools.
You never sent anyone to get the tools.
And she, or someone on her behalf,
got rid of the tools and had them tossed out.
-That part I didn't know about. -[Levy] Okay.
-[laughs] -Well, that's what she says, they're gone.
Oh, yeah, she did tell me they're gone, right?
-But I didn't know what that meant. -[Levy] Yeah, gone.
-Like, gone. -[Cary] Right.
And now you're suing the defendant for the value of your tools,
which you place at $2,200.
Also for lost wages for $500.
-Right. -[Levy] Round-trip transportation
from Las Vegas to LA, $500,
and court costs of $300,
-totaling $3,500. -Right.
Now, the defendant says she owes you nothing.
What she says is that she gave you plenty of time to come back
and either pick up the tools yourself,
or have someone else come to do so and you failed to do so.
And as a result she threw them away,
and she doesn't owe you any money for those tools.
As far as the lost wages,
she says that she's not responsible for your $500 lost wages request
because that's never the way that things work between the two of you.
When you came out to do work for her, she never paid for work you may have lost.
You didn't provide any proof to her that you had other jobs
that you were not getting as a result of doing work for her,
so she says she doesn't owe that to you either.
She also says as far as transportation, she's not responsible for that
because that's the arrangement that you historically had,
and she doesn't know you anything.
That's at least her case. Is that right, ma'am?
-That's right. -[Levy] But we're not done
because you have a counterclaim.
So now you are seeking damages from the plaintiff
for $1,500 in storage fees
for the tools that you eventually threw away.
-Yes. -[Levy] Okay.
-And $250 for lodging at your home. -Yes.
Despite the fact that you have never charged him for lodging before.
-I have. -You have.
-I have. -Okay, we'll get to that.
And $5,056
to repair shoddy work that you claim he did at your home.
-Correct. -Totaling $6,806.
-Correct. -[Levy] Okay.
Oof! Okay, Mr. Cary, why don't you tell us
how it was when it was that you met the defendant.
It was, like, March 2020.
-As soon as COVID hit. -All right.
And when was it that you started going to her home,
doing work, and staying at her home?
-Immediately. -What was the nature
of your relationship with the defendant?
Were you ever more than just a contractor and a client?
-You understand what I'm saying, sir? -Yes, we were friends.
-Just friends. Platonic. -Yeah.
Okay. Is that true, ma'am?
-No, it is not. -[Levy] Okay, we'll get to that.
[audience chuckles]
How many times, Mr. Cary, would you say that you worked
for the defendant in her home over that three-year period? How many times?
How many different occasions did I actually catch the bus
-to come out there and go back? -Yes.
-Fifteen. -[Levy] Fifteen. Are we in the ball park?
-[Kelly] Nope. -Okay.
What do you say the more accurate number is?
-Maybe 10? -[Levy] All right.
We can agree it was about 10 to 15 times?
-[both] Yes. -[Levy] Very good.
When you went to do work for the defendant at her home, did she pay you?
-Yes. -Okay.
And did she reimburse you at all
for lost wages that you were not getting for jobs in Las Vegas?
No, 'cause actually all of those times,
the only jobs I was getting were jobs for her,
and other people, I was kind of working for myself.
-[Levy] Okay -But this particular time
when this incident happened, I actually had a job
-for a paint shop. -[Levy] Okay, we're gonna get--
'Cause an incident happened in which again,
she told you to pack up your tools and leave, in April.
So that was the only time that you claim
you lost work as a result of coming out to LA and doing work for the defendant.
[Cary] Yes.
Did she ever reimburse you for your travel when you did come out?
-Yes. -[Levy] Okay.
Where in her home would you stay when you did come out to do work?
There was a room set aside just for me, which by the way, I painted it.
Now this $2,200 that you're seeking back from the defendant
for the tools that she threw away. Who paid for them?
-I did. -[Levy] Okay.
And as the plaintiff in this case, you understand it is your burden of proof
to prove that you paid for them and what their value was.
-Right. -So do you have any evidence today
-that shows the value of those tools. -No.
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
This piece of evidence that you submitted, Miss Kelly
of the defendant, "Him, Dave, in my room, massaging my feet
-in case he brings it up or tries to lie. -Yeah.
-[Acker] Wha-- -I never touched her feet.
[narrator] Contractor, David Cary, accused his client, Laurita Kelly
of throwing away his tools without permission.
Laurita says he damaged her property and didn't pay for lodging.
Now the defendant, however, I think has a different story about those tools.
Why don't you tell us about that?
Well, most of the tools I got from a friend whose husband passed away.
Did you gift him power tools?
-[Kelly] Yes, I did. -Is that true?
The lady, her friend,
said, "Hey, my husband died, do you want some of this stuff?"
So she gave it to me.
So, as far as the power tool goes, this is what's gonna be important.
It's a bailment. You had tools at her home.
-Right. -They were safeguarded in her home.
-Yeah. -Did she tell you at any time,
verbally, or in writing via text messages,
that you had a certain amount of time to come to her home to pick up those tools.
She told me that on that last day when she kicked me off her property.
Okay, so she told you that, that was April 12th.
You texted her back and said,
"I've made arrangements to get my power tools from your house,
since you told me I have 30 days from the first to pick them up.
-Right. -Okay. She said, "Great,
-they should be gone by June 1st." -Right.
-Did you get them by June 1st? -No.
-Did you get them by June 15th? -No.
-Did you get them by June 30th? -No.
-And any time in July. -No.
[Levy] I'm done. Judge Acker.
I'm a little bit confused by your defense, ma'am,
because you say that you don't owe him any money for the tools you threw away
because you gifted him...
-I did. -...those tools.
I thought your answer was really interesting
because you say that he was a handyman with no truck...
-[Kelly] No truck. -...no bicycle,
-no tricycle. -No tricycle either.
-Nothing. -[Acker] He had no tools, none, not one.
[Kelly] None at all.
And you gave him these tools, over which he's now suing, as a gift.
-I did. -Like, as a gift,
-or are they-- -Yeah, 'cause I had no need of these tools
anymore, storing around my house, so...
So, you think that when you give somebody a gift,
you can just take it back because you get mad at them?
No, I think he could come pick 'em up on the day he said he could pick 'em up.
And he did not pick up the tools. He didn't come until August.
[Acker] Why did it take you so long, sir,
because she's making a good case that perhaps you abandoned these tools.
By the way, I had a messed up phone. I had it all in there, right?
-Text messages between-- -[Acker] She said-- I'm not surprised.
She said you didn't have a bicycle or a tricycle,
so I'm not surprised by the messed-up phone.
-You're surprised I've got a phone, huh? -I'm just messing with you.
-[laughs] -[Acker] No but seriously,
if she threw it away because you abandoned it,
that's different from her saying,
"You know what, this is a gift I'm going to take back."
That's what I thought her defense was.
How do you abandon something all of a sudden in two months,
when it's been over there for two years.
When somebody says, come get it by June 1st and you don't come get it?
[Acker] I need to ask you something,
this piece of evidence that you submitted, Miss Kelly...
-Mm-hm. ...of the defendant,
"Him, Dave, in my room massaging my feet,
-in case he brings it up or tries to lie." -Yeah.
-[Acker] Wha-- -I never touched her feet.
-[Kelly] That's my bedroom... -[Cary] Never touched her feet.
...I have a purple bedroom.
That's my foot and that is him massaging my foot.
[Cary] That ain't true, that's somebody else's hands.
Put a close-up on him side by side, that is him!
-Somebody else's hands. -[Acker] That is definitely him.
-Show a picture of my face. -[Kelly] That's him.
Let me just ask you something, sir,
-why would she have a picture-- -That ain't me!
[Acker] It kind of looks like you.
Why would she have a picture of you
-massaging somebody else's feet. -That's not me.
But I'm gonna put all this aside. The reason I'm exploring this
is because she took pains in her answer.
She was, like, "He is going to show up
and try to disavow everything that took place between us."
And that's why she submitted that picture.
What is supposed to have took place between us? I'm waiting to hear that part.
It actually plays into a theory of the case,
because you weren't just a contractor.
You guys had a thing.
-No, we did not. -[Acker] This is the theory.
I need you to stop talking. You asked me a question.
Because the two of you may have been involved.
It went south.
She submitted that evidence to say
he's going to deny the fact that we were involved,
but we were.
This was not an arm's length transaction.
Which actually, it supports her position
that you know what, maybe you did abandon the tools
because you were just done with it.
You should be proud that somebody like this would want to hang out with you.
That's all. That's all I got. Thank you.
[DiMango] I think there's more that meets the eye here for sure.
There definitely is.
The fact that there's this tension in here,
and you're leaving these tools behind,
it reeks of passive-aggressive behavior.
You know you're gonna leave it there. She's going to say come and get it
and you're just gonna keep pushing the envelope.
She was holding on to your property. She was storing it.
Storage means you hold on to it. You take care of it, right?
She was storing it until the date certain.
Not, as pointed out by both of my colleagues, beyond the June 1st date.
So when you left them there, at that point, that ended a bailment,
which meant that she could do what she wants.
She could give them back to the other lady, She could sell them online.
That's a clear situation.
Now we know-- What is your name, ma'am?
-Shanae. -Shanae, step up.
-You didn't get the tools, did you? -No.
Okay, so why are you here?
I contacted Dave to come get the tools after June the first,
when he didn't show up.
-I texted him... -[DiMango] Oh, so you're a party--
You said come and get your stuff out of the house.
-Exactly. -And what was his answer?
I have texts here, um...
Just off the top of your head, do you remember what he said?
-Certainly didn't say I'll be right there. -He was making up excuses.
He couldn't get there...
And you relayed this information to Miss Kelly, correct?
-Yes. -[DiMango] And without the superlatives
that she probably threw in there, what did Miss Kelly say?
She didn't really say anything. She was, like, done, she didn't--
-[DiMango] You were done with him, right? -That's why I got involved
because it was a lot of tension, she really didn't want him on the property.
-[DiMango] Okay. -I pulled the tools out for him to get.
-Okay, so you put them aside for him. -[Young] Yes.
Now, the problem I have-- Because you have a counterclaim here,
so we're going to look at the counterclaim a little bit.
The problem that I have with the counterclaim
-is you want to charge him for storage. -Yeah.
And if he were to come back and gotten his property,
I might have said, "Well, you stored his property,
you did what the word storage means,
you kept them safe for him until he could return and get them."
But at some point, you didn't do that,
so that puts into question for me
whether or not you would be entitled to any money at all.
Meanwhile, you'd never mentioned to him
that there's a $25-a-day charge for storing your property.
So that kind of puts a hole in your position
that you were entitled to get storage money from him.
I told him that I was going to charge him
if he didn't take those tools off my property,
and he became threatening.
That's the one issue on that.
Now, the second issue that you have is the housing.
You say that he stayed at your home for, I believe, 10 days.
-You were charging him $25 a day for that. -Yes.
And you did mention to, I think it was Judge Levy,
that you did charge him in the past for staying there.
-[Kelly] I have. -And you're saying there's no relationship
so, she might be a very kind woman but she gave you a room--
According to you. It's your testimony.
She gave you a room that you even painted.
And she would-- I'm asking you, she would charge you to stay there. Correct?
-Am I not get to say anything? -[DiMango] I'm asking you.
Can you repeat the question? [laughs]
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
[Levy] You're pointing to a phone, but the problem is
that if in fact the evidence exists in that phone,
and you don't have it, it doesn't alleviate your responsibility.
She's saying she wants money for you, staying in the room.
-She was charging you $25 a day. -For that 10 days or whatever she is.
Right, so I'm asking you the question. Did she ever charge you to stay there?
A couple of the jobs I did for her, she was charging me
-room and board. -[DiMango] How much?
-What was it... -Did she tell you in advance,
or you just always knew it was $25 a day.
-[Cary] I don't think it was $25 a day. -Miss Kelly, I know-- Miss Kelly.
-Yeah. -Look up here.
-Yes, -Don't think it was that much, $25 a day.
Well, how much less could it have been? Five? I mean, that's ridiculous.
-Okay, so she did charge you in the past-- -If we had a thing on,
why are you charging me anything, that's what I'm saying.
[DiMango] Well, she did and you paid. She did and you paid.
Wait a minute, hold it, that doesn't make any sense.
Well, maybe in your world, but in her world it did and you paid it.
So that's the second issue that she was raising.
The third issue were things that you say he did
that he didn't fix properly.
Did you lay out money to have these things fixed?
I mean, I know you showed us this picture of this door lock here.
[Kelly] He took a saw and chopped the door locks out.
-Pieces won't fit. -Can I see that, please?
-What is that? -It's a door, you know the deadbolt?
That is a door that she didn't even pay me to fix.
I just did that out of the kindness of my heart.
[DiMango] You kind of chopped it off out of the kindness of your heart?
You know what, you were using him to do handyman things around your home,
so he did the quick handyman,
you're my friend, and you're not really paying me to do this kind of job.
That's what he did. Did you pay other people to do this work and fix it?
'Cause I didn't see any proof of any out-of-pocket damages.
You should see the damages.
Yeah, but I don't know what it would cost to fix this.
Anything you can offer us, ma'am, other than you were there to put the tools away.
-No. -Okay, so then you can have a seat.
-Okay, thank you. -And listen,
this relationship here was murky from all sorts of perspectives.
Hopefully, we'll be able to clear up all the murkiness in the testimony
as it applies to the documents you've submitted,
while we deliberate in the back.
You guys never let me say nothing and you're gonna deliberate?
I don't get that.
What do you wanna say?
I wanna say that first of all, me and her never had any kind of relationship--
Okay, we don't care about that.
[Levy] Mr. Cary, whether or not there was a relationship,
when you're looking for you to be compensated for lost wages,
it doesn't really make a difference.
It's what the past practices were, as we've gotten into,
regarding you paying rent or a room and board.
-That's important. That's money. -[Cary] Right.
You said, though, that you did pay her.
I have before.
But that's five times out of 500. What does that add up to?
I understand.
Everything I had was in this phone. The phone got wet...
So, Mr. Cary, you're pointing to a phone, but the problem is
that if in fact, the evidence exists in that phone
and you don't have it, it doesn't alleviate your responsibility.
We can't accept your word
that you spent the $500 or even the court costs.
You say you spent $300 on court costs. Do you have evidence of that?
That wouldn't be in your phone. That would be a receipt from a court.
I filed a fee waiver at the same time as I filed the case.
I don't know what the judge says until he lets me know.
[Levy] I got it. Thank you, Mr. Cary. Thank you.
We're going to retire to deliberate. Thank you all.
Court now stands in recess. Parties are excused.
As we've seen so many times before, it's not always about money.
There's a back story and when emotions get involved, makes things complicated.
As you both said, very clearly the defendant's request for his tools,
and if in fact he was given an opportunity to come pick 'em up
and he chose not to do so,
then it's on him.
And as we all know, you come in as a plaintiff,
the burden of proof is yours, and if you don't have that proof,
for whatever reason, whether it's intentional, whether it's negligence,
whether he did something to his phone, it doesn't change the burden.
So his lost wages claim, his round-trip transportation claim,
also, I believe, should be dismissed.
As far as his court costs go, they were waived.
As far as her counterclaim goes, as you indicated correctly,
you know she wants $1500 for storage fees,
but she never told him what she was gonna be charging.
She doesn't get anything in my opinion for storage fees.
You know, the lodging is, you know is a different story.
He paid that before, but he didn't always have to pay.
He paid sometimes, he didn't pay other times.
She most certainly didn't say to him, "This time you have to pay."
That's not something that she had indicated.
And the 5,056 for repair for shoddy work.
I think, quite frankly, that if they didn't have that blow up in April,
she would've lived with the door the way it was.
So I believe that the entire matter, quite frankly, should be dismissed.
I'm on the fence about her request for housing costs.
I'm inclined to give her the housing
because there was a practice and I found her more credible than I found him.
[DiMango] Well, I'm closer to wanting to award her the 250
because I think that if he would have been a little more admitting
that there was a relationship, friends with benefits kind of thing,
I might have said, "All right, she was letting him stay."
But he was adamant that wasn't happening, so he's gotta live by that.
So I'm willing to give her the 250 for that.
And with regard to the damages on the door,
yes, she was going to live with that.
If he would've come back, she never would've complained about that.
And the first thing was the storage. Storage is storage.
You don't throw something out after you store it, then say I'm billing you for it.
I would give her the 250.
All right, two to one, that's fine by me. That's the verdict.
Court is back in session.
Parties are reminded, you're still under oath.
-[Levy] Thank you, Byrd. -Mm-hm.
We're gonna start with the counterclaim.
Miss Kelly, you're looking for $6,806.
Fifteen hundred dollars for storage fees for the tools.
The problem with that is that at no time did you indicate to the defendant
what the daily storage rate was going to be for those tools,
which is why that part of your counterclaim is being dismissed.
As far as the 5,056 to repair what you claim was shoddy work at your home.
That is also going to be dismissed for the following reason.
There's nothing that you have provided us to indicate you actually fixed it.
The lodging, a little more difficult.
That was not a unanimous decision.
But you are succeeding on that claim because two of them,
my two colleagues here, decided over my dissent
that you should receive that $250
because there was a past practice, no matter how many times,
that you did charge for room and board.
Mr. Cary, you've valued your tools at $2,200.
Putting aside the fact for a moment that there was no proof of that,
the problem was that the defendant and her witness
provided you, in writing, very clearly which you acknowledged,
their request that you pick up those items.
And as a result, they could do anything they want with that.
What they did was, they put them on the sidewalk and someone took them.
But they're allowed to do that as a matter of law.
The lost wages, the round trip transportation.
The problem is you had that proof on your phone.
There's no provision in the law
to relieve you of your obligation to prove your case
because of a broken phone or or what have you.
If you didn't have that, there's no way that we can rule in your favor.
As far as the court costs go, those fees were waived
and that you did not actually have to pay that out of your own pocket.
We took judicial notice of that.
So it is the unanimous verdict of the court
that the complaint is going to be dismissed in its entirety.
The defendants counterclaim is going to be granted
with my dissent, as to only the $250.
So that is the verdict of the court. Thank you.
[Byrd] This case is concluded. Parties are excused. You may step out.
She was having a birthday party, right? I was going to build a deck for it.
Cause he wanted to DJ and be at my party. That's the real reason.
She wanted me to be the DJ.
I didn't want him to DJ. I never contracted him to DJ.
His music is whack.
She started thinking, wait a minute,
this guy might be shining more than me at my birthday.
So she just cut out the whole thing.
I hope he stays out my life forever and for good.
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