A classic car. You wanted him to repaint it?
-Yes. -I went by the color code she sent me.
But then you picked a color all on your own, right?
No actually, I called her and told her I picked a color.
That's not what she wanted.
Yeah, I went similar.
Yeah, well similar's not good.
[announcer] Today on Tribunal Justice.
[theme music playing]
[announcer] This case was filed in Los Angeles, California.
Your Honor, this is case number 1066 on the calendar
in the matter of Scudieri versus Solis.
Both parties have been sworn in. You may be seated.
-[Acker] Thank you, Byrd. -[Byrd] Mm-hm.
Miss Scudieri, you brought your 1977 Pontiac Firebird
to the defendant, you wanted him to repaint it.
Now that, of course, is a classic car and the paint job was important.
And in your complaint, you allege that not only did he paint it the wrong color
without your authorization, but he further damaged the car,
and as a consequence of his horrible work, you say he just destroyed it.
He's destroyed the car entirely and you're suing him for $10,000.
Mr. Solis, you allege that she was fine with the car.
-Yes, ma'am. -When she picked it up, she was happy,
she was taking pictures, texting her friends.
Fine with the car until six months later.
Your position is you did a great job and you don't owe her any money.
Miss Scudieri, when did he get his hands on the car?
-In November. He started working on it. -[Acker] November.
-And just the paint job? -Yes.
And you were specific about the paint, weren't you?
Very, very.
She was very specific about the paint, Mr. Solis.
-Correct. -There were some communications
between the two of you about precisely what color red she wanted, were there not?
That's true. That's very important.
But then you picked the color all on your own, right?
No, actually what happened was the color that she picked was extremely expensive
for the amount of money that we had to spend for the paint job.
So, I told her that the best thing to do is get something as close as possible
-to the color that she picked. -And when you picked the color,
-that was as close as possible… -[Solis] Mm-hm.
…you did that without getting her approval.
No, actually, I called her and told her I picked the color.
So, I find that interesting because there's a text message
-from her to you… -Correct.
…where you tell her, "I'm gonna paint tomorrow."
You tell her November 21,
" I found the color code. All is good. Very pricey."
And then you said, "I'll paint tomorrow."
-Correct. -And then she said,
"Can I see a test panel first, please?
I don't know what that color looks like in person."
-You remember that? -Yes, ma'am.
Your response is,
"Car is painted, looks good." Same day.
So tell me when between 10:13,
when she said, "I'd like to see it in person,"
and 12:04, when you say it's already done.
Tell me when she approved it.
-She didn't approve it. -[Acker] She didn't approve it.
-How long did you have the car? -I don't recall exactly.
How long did he have your car?
-A month, Your Honor. -A month.
And there was some communication between the two of you
where you say to him, look, you've had the car for a lot longer
than you were supposed to.
I'm having to pay out of pocket for this rental car,
are you gonna help me out?
Did you offer to help her out?
I actually gave her money.
-You did? How much did you give her? -Yes.
I think I gave her, the first time she was there, I gave her $100.
Is that true?
-He gave me $100 cash. Yes. -[Acker] Towards the rental?
Now when he said he was gonna give you money for the rental,
he never represented a specific amount.
-He said I'll help you out some. -Correct.
And when did he give you that help?
Um, one of the times I was in there.
-Before the car was finished. -You guys are in court,
you're litigants, I need better than one of the times.
When did he give you the money for the rental car?
So towards the end of November.
-Towards the end of November? -Yeah.
So then why in January, when you reached out to him
about your concerns with the car,
were you still asking for money for the rental?
So he was supposed to have my car for two weeks? He had it for a full month.
I thought he would at least split-- At least split it with me.
You didn't say spilt, you said can you help me.
-Correct. -All right, when you picked the car up
in November, did you tell him in November that you were not happy with it?
Honestly, I just wanted to get out of there.
I grabbed the keys and I left.
I'm not a confrontational person.
It was him and a staff of what seemed like about 10 people.
-I didn't-- I just wanted to get out. -[Acker] Okay.
What you're now suggesting is that you were so afraid you had to get out.
The record doesn't show that. I'm asking you a direct question.
Now is not the time to try to make him seem like an ogre,
or the scariest man in the world. There's nothing in the record about that.
What I'm trying to find out is whether or not when you picked up the car,
you said, "I still have some problems with the car."
Did you say that yes or no?
No, I didn't say anything. I asked for the keys and I left.
Mr. Solis, I found it curious
that you said that she didn't raise any issues for six months,
but on its face that's not true.
She picked the car up in November.
We know in January, on January 27, she sent you a litany of complaints.
So it wasn't six months, it was a couple of months.
So why did you say it was six months?
Well, the six months were basically after the fact
that she decided to change her mind about the color.
That's what I was referring to.
Well, when you say change her mind about the color, how do you get there?
Because we already established that you painted the car…
-Mm-hm. -…and you picked the final color
without confirming with her,
so you didn't really give her a chance to change her mind about anything.
-Do you know that term, "gaslight?" -No.
It's when you just really make something up about somebody
and then you act like they're crazy for challenging you.
It was almost like you were trying to gaslight her.
-No. -Now, I have to say, Miss Scudieri,
you're still so far away from proving your case
as far as I can see, or meeting your burden,
because you're suing him for $10,000 and you're saying he's ruined the car.
I have no evidence of what condition the car was in before you took it to him,
and here's what I do know.
I know that it was involved in an insurance situation
-and there was a lawyer involved. -No lawyer, Your Honor.
Now I'm going to have to remind you of evidence in this case
because the defendant submitted a text message from you
prior to November, I think this was in September,
and you said, "September 24, 2019.
Can you please write me a few sentences explaining
why the car has to be repainted in full
versus just painting the rest of the car minus the two panels and blending.
Attorney needs it."
So I will ask you once again,
how on earth are you going to carry your burden of proving
that this man ruined your car,
when the car clearly had some issues before you took it to him?
Can I explain, please?
-That's what I'm asking you to do. -Okay.
[announcer] Coming up on Tribunal Justice…
After she said to you,
"Don't do it, I wanna see the color first."
And what's your next e-mail to her?
-I did it! -Mm-hm.
How do you justify that?
[announcer] Jilian Scudieri is suing body shop owner, Eddie Solis
for painting her 1977 Pontiac Firebird the wrong color.
Eddie claims she was happy with the work
and damaged the paint job herself.
Now, how on earth are you going to carry your burden of proving
that this man ruined your car,
when the car clearly had some issues before you took it to him.
Okay, so my card was sideswiped,
the front two panels were damaged.
They only wanted to repaint those two panels and my car is from '77.
The paint job is over 40 years old
and everyone knows with a classic car you can't just repaint the--
[Acker] How do I know it was just sideswiped?
How do I know the car wasn't involved in a more serious collision?
And how can you prove that
when you did not bring one picture of the car before it was in his hands?
I have the supplement from GEICO.
Everything you say may be true.
I think that it's clear that he just went ahead
and picked the paint color without your authorization,
but you were rushing him, so you may have proven
that he wasn't entirely perfect,
but you've much to do in order to carry your burden here.
But you've got two more judges. Judge DiMango.
I wanna see a picture of the car when you gave it to him.
I really wanna see that picture,
-I think that's very important. -I have one in my phone.
Well, I wanna see it.
Mr. Solis, while she's looking for that,
how much did you charge her for this paint job?
I think $1,800.
-So you paid $1,800? -I'm sorry, $7,400.
No, that's not true.
You did a paint job for $1,800? That's unheard of.
-I'm sorry. -Well, cause my whole thing
was you're gonna get what you paid for.
If you paid him $1,800,
he gave you an $1,800 paint job.
You know, I mean, he didn't give you a $10,000 paint job, so…
Your Honor, I have a quote from him.
For 6,000 and change.
-Correct? -I don't know where $1,800 came from.
Well, I see these things in there,
but you know, there's a big picture here that we're trying to put together.
That's what it looked like before.
Thank you, Cassandra.
This way you can see.
Mm-hmm.
To me, this is like candy apple red.
-That's, like, years ago in the '70s… -[Scudieri] Yes.
when guys had these, you know, souped-up cars,
they painted them candy apple red.
It was a big thing. It was kind of a little bit iridescent.
-It really just looked like a candy apple. -Sort of metallic.
Had a little bit of metallic to it.
Sir, I want to say that the color I saw here in one of these photographs
is nowhere near candy apple red,
it's more like plum purple.
So for you to think that these two colors look the same
when she sent you the message that said, "Are you color blind?"
I'm gonna ask you, are you?
No, ma'am, that's the old color.
-This is the old color. -That's not the color she picked, though.
How the car looked before I brought it in…
And did you want a color closer to this or to that?
I said I wanted a deep red, kind of like a blood red,
that popped with metallic.
I did not say I wanted burgundy, I did not say I wanted purple, I said red.
Was it closer to that, the one that you had before,
or closer to the color that he did here?
-Closer to the one I had originally. -That's what I thought
based on the papers that that's what she was looking for.
A red, not a deep purple, not a brownish red,
but something like that.
Though you did push him to say, come on, get this thing done.
You went and did it after she said to you,
"Don't do it, I wanna see the color first."
And what's your next email to her? I did it!
Mm-hm. Because I--
[DiMango] How do you justify that?
Because I used the email she sent me of the color--
But you didn't get the color she wanted, you got a similar color.
-Yeah, a similar. Correct. -In your head similar.
Not in her mind, similar. That's not what she wanted.
Yeah, I went similar.
Yeah, well, "similar" is not good.
So, you get in a car accident. Tell me about the accident.
I got sideswiped.
You got sideswiped. Hit and run?
No, but the lady didn't have insurance, so my insurance company had to cover it.
-You had collision on a 1977 car? -I had full coverage.
Did you have it labeled a classic car?
-Oh, yeah. -Okay, because I had a classic car,
I had a classic Porsche once,
and there's a lot of rules you have to go by,
and one of them is you're not just driving around to go to the supermarket
and hang out with your friends.
It's supposed to be for car shows and there's very limited driving.
And your insurance coverage is very inexpensive because of that.
How much money did GEICO give you? I'd like to see that.
And who did they mail the check to? You or to him?
Mr. Solis.
Why would they mail the check directly to him and not to you? Thanks.
Because I think that's the way that insurance companies work.
They work with the auto body shop and not me.
-[DiMango] What did you say you got? -Eighteen hundred.
You know it almost looks to me like the estimate was 1,524.
I mean, I was never given a receipt by Mr. Solis, so…
You never called them to say, "I wanna verify
how much money was sent to him"?
No, Your Honor, because he told me that's what they gave him.
Let's assume that we find that he made a mistake.
I need to know how much he was paid.
Right now, I don't have any way of knowing what money he got.
There's got to be a way you have something.
He's not going to prove it. You need to.
-What's that? -This. Maybe this. This is his quote.
What he gave to me of how much it's gonna cost for him to paint my car.
[DiMango] Okay, let me see that.
Thank you.
You told her $6,231
and then you're going to tell us that you settled for 1,800?
Yes, ma'am. She never paid me that.
The insurance company only gave me the--
And you never went after her for the balance on this, that's your position?
No, because that was the quote I'd given her before we started repairs.
I have a real problem with the evidence here and what you say you have.
You should have brought in something to demonstrate what you were paid.
To say, I wanted 6,500. I got 18.
-And you didn't do that. -No, I did not. I apologize.
Don't apologize. You're the one that's going to end up with the problem.
-Judge Levy. -[Levy] Miss Scudieri.
You had this car that had been damaged
from February of '19 until September of '19.
-Correct. -Defendant was the first person
you went to to fix that car?
-To have it repainted? -Yes.
And before you went and took it to the defendant,
you did your due diligence and you checked him out online, right?
He was referred by a mutual friend.
Okay, well, that's even better.
It was a friend that you respected.
It was a friend who knew how much you loved your car.
Someone from the classic car community had a beautiful Camaro.
-You've gotta trust someone with a Camaro. -What could be better than that.
Getting it from a fellow classic car buff.
That's why they provided you with the defendant's information.
And there was nothing that you've learned since this incident,
since the unfortunate circumstances with the defendant,
that led you to believe, based upon looking online,
that he's ever scammed anyone out of money?
He has a handful of bad Yelp reviews.
A handful. How long you been in business?
I'm going on 37 years.
Thirty-seven years. And how many cars do you paint a week?
Maybe four or five.
Four to five cars a week, 37 years.
You got a handful of Yelps that aren't good.
-That's not bad. -Right.
And that's why your friend gave you his information.
So on September 12, 2019,
you give him the information to your claims adjuster.
and he says, "I will be working on the estimate tonight,
will take some time."
And you communicate via email, right? Not text.
Sometimes on the phone, but mainly email.
And he didn't respond to you, by the way, via his cell phone,
he responded with a Yahoo account.
-You have a Yahoo email address? -I might be too young for that.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, the Smithsonian called, they want his back.
[all laughing]
[announcer] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
Why did you wait 17 hours to get back to him?
How did you know he didn't start the car that morning at 7 a.m.?
It was prepped and primed to go, right?
-Wasn't it? Yeah, it was. -I couldn't, but maybe--
Cause you wanted it rushed.
You don't take any responsibility for that?
Okay, September 13 was the estimate
and that estimate was net total 6,231, right?
Okay, that explains that.
And you respond on September 13, "Sounds good. Thank you. Eddie."
Then on September 24, you write, "Can you please write a few sentences
explaining why the car has to be repainted in full
versus just painting the rest of the car, minus the two panels."
Why was it that you were sending him that email?
Just one or two panels can't be painted. The whole thing needs to be painted
because like I explained before,
how do you match paint from a car that's from 1977
that's been weathered with the sun and--? It's hard.
Well, hold on one second. I'm-- [chuckles] I'm going to ask the defendant,
Mr. Solis, did anything prevent you
from just painting the quarter panels and calling it a day?
-Uh, no. -[Levy] No.
But who wanted the whole car painted?
-She did. -Right.
By the way, these emails we didn't get from you
although you had them, we got from him.
-You understand that? -Okay.
And you had these emails, right? Course you did.
Of course, yeah.
Hold on. "Car was poorly painted
and car has multiple colors. A very bad paint application on the car."
What's that about? That has nothing to do with an accident.
That has to do with your car having a crappy paint job.
So a while back I had it painted.
Someone actually did just paint the door.
They tried to match it and they couldn't and that's from my experience,
it was really hard to match a new color with old…
I get it, you wanted the whole car looking the same color.
Listen, the person who sideswiped you gave you that opportunity
by you being able to request that GEICO pick up the whole tab for it.
But you needed his help
and he provided you with an email that would have allowed that to happen.
When you said that your last paint job was really crappy,
how long ago was that crappy paint job put on your car?
Maybe, like, within a year.
-Wow, so it was recent? -Somewhat, yeah.
And would it be fair to say that the paint job didn't look professional?
It looked great, but the colors didn't match.
So you had color problems again?
You were upset that he put a color on your car that you did not approve of
and you specifically requested--
Not only did you request, you told him, don't do a thing
without me first approving.
And like you just said,
you had already a bad experience with another paint guy doing a poor job.
So that's why you were explicit with this defendant,
don't do a thing until I approve the color.
-Correct? -I didn't see any of that in your emails.
So on November 20, 2019, you sent him an email
in which you just put a couple of photographs of car colors.
November 21, 2019, he says, "Send me color code."
You know, that's how he operates.
You know that's how most painters operate.
Don't send me a picture of a car. Send me a color code.
That way we don't have this, right?
He's nodding his head. Yeah.
And then, same day, 5:18 p.m., so this is five hours later.
you sent to him, "Tried calling you three times.
Got to pick a color quick.
Like I said, I can't afford the rental anymore."
Your honor, he told me he would have my car for two weeks.
-I don't care what he said. -He had it a whole month.
I don't care what he said. That's what you said.
You tried calling him three times.
You paint the cars yourself with the guys in your shop?
-Yes, sir. -What time do you start in the morning?
-Seven o'clock. -Seven o'clock.
When you went there, you saw the guys working
starting early in the morning, right?
Never seen him working, but, yes.
-But his guys are working. -Sure.
No reason to believe he doesn't work,
he doesn't seem like the guy who sits behind a desk.
He was every time I went in there.
-Every time? -Yeah.
Okay. The one thing that wasn't in your emails,
-but it was in his. -Mm-hmm.
His evidence, was you wrote to him,
"Royal crimson metallic tinted clearcoat on the 2008 Mustang."
-Mm-hmm. -That's what you sent him,
So that's now the color code that you're working on with him.
-And I'm waiting for a sample to see if… -Hold on!
I'm looking for where you say in that email.
Show me, you've got a copy of it, show me in that email where it says,
"Don't do a thing, until I see it."
-Well, Your Honor, It was already-- -I just want you to show me
in the email, "Don't do a thing until I see it."
I wanna see that email.
I don't have that email because--
-Yup, you don't have it, I get that. -I gave you a good reason.
I get that, you don't have it. This is where things get a little dicey now.
He says at 5:35 p.m.-- This is what Judge Acker discussed with you.
He says, "Will paint tomorrow."
You sent him emails from your phone, right?
You don't have to sit at a computer for that.
So there's no reason for me to believe that you didn't get that email from him
"Will paint tomorrow," immediately when he sent it at 5:35 p.m.
You Honor, I was at work.
Hold on. Did you not get that email at 5:35 p.m.?
-No. -You didn't?
When I received it, I responded right away.
You didn't respond until 17 hours later.
I work a double at a bar
-every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. -Seventeen hours later.
He says, "I'm gonna start painting tomorrow,"
and you, 17 hours later say,
"Can I see a test panel first, please?"
Where's the next email? Show me?
In November, where it says you didn't like the color of that paint.
Is it not provided?
Nope, not for a couple of months. Not until January of 2020.
That's because I went in there and spoke to him in person when I picked up the car.
And in no email with him in January or February,
did you ever say, ever,
that I did not like the color of the car when I picked it up.
Just because it's not in writing doesn't mean I didn't verbalize it.
Well, it doesn't, but you know what that does?
-I was on the phone with him, I was-- -It makes it difficult for us
to rule in your favor, when you have the burden of proof.
Why did you wait 17 hours to get back to him?
When you wanted him to send an email to your insurance carrier,
boom, you were on him, like white on rice.
But 17 hours you waited.
How did you know he didn't start the car that morning at 7 a.m.?
It was prepped and primed to go right, wasn't it?
-Maybe-- -Yeah, it was, cause you wanted it rushed.
You don't take any responsibility for that?
I was working.
I have nothing further.
We're going to retire to deliberate. Thank you both.
Court is now in recess. Parties are excused.
So, here's where we are, friends.
She is suing him for $10,000
because she says that's what it's going to cost to repaint the car.
Alternatively, he destroyed the car.
I don't feel we have competent evidence
of the value of the car
before he got his hands on it because we know it was in an accident.
I do think that she had an expectation
that he would confirm color before he moved forward.
But I don't know what she paid him.
She doesn't seem to be very clear about what she paid him,
so even if we were to find there was some negligence on his part,
I have no sense at all of what the actual damage would be.
I'm inclined to dismiss.
Well, I agree with you 100 percent.
What I'm really troubled with here
is how come neither one of these two people
can tell us how he got paid and how much.
There's something here that I can't put my finger on that I don't like.
There was something going on here between the two
where she was looking to get something, perhaps, that she wasn't entitled to.
So, at the end of the day, I think we're all in the same place,
which is my initial inclination was to dismiss.
I'm even more firm in that now.
It sounds like you want to dismiss, and you certainly want to dismiss.
-Shall we? -Yup.
[Byrd] Court is back in session.
Parties are reminded, you're still under oath.
-[Acker] Thank you, Byrd. -Mm-hm.
We have deliberated and we've reached a unanimous verdict.
Where we are unanimous, Miss Scudieri,
is that we have to dismiss your complaint
'cause you just did not make your case of damages.
You came to court with no evidence of what he was paid.
You're guessing in this case
because you could not prove what the value of the car was
before he got his hands on it
because we knew that your car was involved in some kind of accident.
There's no way we could saddle him with all of that damage.
You just didn't prove it. Your case is dismissed.
This case is concluded. Parties are excused.
You may step out.
Well, it's a waste of time.
It's been three years that I painted the car.
Try not to be a nice guy.
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