Sister suing brother.
[narrator] Now, on Tribunal Justice...
We were yelling back and forth.
He grabs me and pushes me towards the door.
-Her husband pulled a gun on you. -Yes.
She was banging on the door really crazy. And they were just arguing.
He's like, "If you can't calm down, leave."
Did you pull a gun on this man?
[narrator] Today's case was filed in La Marque, Texas.
Your Honor, this is Case #3011, Williams vs. McNemar.
Thank you very much, Cassandra.
[Cassandra] You're welcome. You may be seated.
So, sister suing brother.
And the lawsuit is over a lawnmower.
$2,500 plus $150 loan.
You say that he agreed to pay you, and he didn't pay,
other than $140. He still owes you $2,510.
You say, you did agree to pay her,
but she came by, tried to repossess it, and in doing so,
broke your screen door. So now, you don't want to pay her.
And in fact, you're suing her now in a counterclaim
to say that that screen door is gonna cost you $1,600 to repair.
Yes, ma'am.
So, tell me a little bit about your relationship,
because I can't believe that two siblings would sue over a lawnmower.
Were you close growing up?
No, not really. I mean, he's always been sort of abusive.
No, ma'am.
And then, I think he was like 16, Mama,
my parents made him go to a different school.
But I did notice that you did live next door to each other, right?
Or on the same property?
He was staying with me before he was living in that house.
Um, him and his girlfriend had come down from Arizona
and he didn't have a place to stay. And then, so...
So you let him stay with you. So, you had this relationship.
And you went out, and in May of 2021, you bought a lawnmower.
Yes.
And we can see a picture of that lovely lawnmower.
It's a commercial lawnmower.
I mean, I know it sounds like just a lawnmower,
-but it's expensive. -[Patricia] What state do you live in?
-Texas. -Big lawns, and all.
I get it. I understand that you need that, and it's important.
So, you buy this lawnmower. You take out a lease on the lawnmower.
-It's a 2021 lawnmower. -Correct.
The lease value is a little over $6,000.
Had you not taken out the lease, you would've paid like $2,800.
Mm-hmm.
And you had about 26 months to pay $98 every two weeks for that.
-Correct? -Mm-hmm.
When do you finally pay it off?
We paid it off September of 2023.
[DiMango] When you move in May of 2023,
you say you want to buy the lawnmower, right?
Yes, ma'am.
The issue here is you say it was not for $2,500.
You say you agreed to pay $1,500 for this lawnmower.
-Correct? -Yes, ma'am.
Because of damages.
Of course you say, the agreement was that he was going to pay $2,500.
'Cause you were paying the leasing company directly.
It was $200 a month.
-So, basically our payment. -[Patricia] Okay.
I believe we have a text from him where he says,
"I'm working, and whenever we get paid,
-I'll give you $100." Correct? -[Cody] Yes, ma'am.
[Mandy] At that point, he hadn't made a payment in over a year.
Okay. So, he agrees. And this text comes to you,
I believe, if I'm not mistaken, in August,
-is that correct? -Correct.
And that's after he agreed in May
that he was going to pay you for the lawnmower?
-Mm-hmm. -[Patricia] And until that time,
you made zero payments.
[Cody] Well, she... I got ill.
I got bone cancer...
[DiMango] When did you get sick?
Um, it was in April, 2023.
[DiMango] So, you got sick before you agreed to buy the lawnmower?
It was right at the same time.
[DiMango] Is that correct?
He's told me he has brain tumors, he's been shot ten times.
[DiMango] You must have medical evidence of this.
I didn't bring any...
No. Because that's what your excuse is for not paying.
I have pictures of the surgeries. She told me, when I get better,
I can start paying.
You had a problem with your foot, as I understand it.
Would that be correct?
He had surgery on his foot. I guess the surgery didn't fix the problem.
And eventually, he started getting some sort of like skin issue from that surgery.
-And then he claimed that it was cancer. -Okay.
But we visited him in the hospital.
They were treating him with antibiotics.
Like, you don't treat cancer with antibiotics.
And of course, if this were your whole case,
which apparently it is, you would have all of these medical records
saying cancer, cancer, cancer. Bad foot, bad skin, bad foot.
Antibiotics, chemo, whatever it is.
-But you don't have that here, do you? -No, ma'am, I don't.
Okay. By the way, where is the lawnmower today, sir?
I had to pawn it, and to pay for...
-[DiMango] Cancer medication, right? -Yes, ma'am.
Which we don't have any evidence you have.
So, you pawned this. What do you get for pawning it?
Uh, I got $1,200.
So, where is it now? Is it still with the pawn shop?
-[Cody] Yes, ma'am. -How long has it been with the pawn shop?
Uh, since June of this year.
But you're making the payments, because he's not paying you,
and you don't want them to repossess it
as the contract indicates.
Right. I had called him up and said, you know, I get it.
You're struggling. 'Cause at that point, I had sent him money on CashApp for gas...
You gave him $150 that you claim he gave you $40
towards for this loan that you gave him.
Yeah. So, I had called him, and I was trying to be really sympathetic.
You know, it's my brother...
[DiMango] I got you, let's move along. You're sympathetic.
Bottom line is, you go to the house on an occasion
because you want to get the lawnmower back.
He's hiding from you, is that correct?
-Correct. -No, ma'am.
-[DiMango] He's hiding in the bedroom. -I knocked on the door.
She had answered. I asked, where's Cody. She said, he's not here.
At this point, I'm upset, because I'm talkin' to her and she's like...
[soft chuckle] Like it's funny. And I'm upset.
So, I mean, I think it just fueled the fire.
When we get in the living room, I hear something from his bedroom.
I go to open his bedroom door, and he's pushing against it.
We're yelling back and forth. He's telling me to leave.
And so, I turn around to leave, and he grabs me
and pushes me towards the door.
[DiMango] Did you push the door at that point?
-That's a lie. -Yeah.
That is, all of that is absolutely...
I heard you say that. I just want to know, how long were you living in that house?
[Cody] A year and a half.
-And did you buy it? -I am buying the home.
[DiMango] How old is it? Do you know?
It was built in 1952.
So, that's like a 75-year-old screen door.
It's not that old.
[DiMango] The bottom line is, you can see the pictures here.
I wanted to show the picture, because it's so old,
that the paint is actually peeling and cracking from age.
So, that just goes to the age of the door.
But it wasn't new, right?
-No, it was not new. -[DiMango] Thank you.
Judge Levy?
-So, Mr. McNemar? -[Cody] Yes.
I'm still trying to figure out why it was in your answer,
that you said that in May of 2023, you bought the mower from your sister.
She wanted $2,000, but you talked her down to $1,500.
Is that still your position today?
Yes. And there's text message on April 29th of '23
that says, make payments on $2k in payments
if something happens to it, if it gets damaged while she's storing it there.
But it also says, she'll give me first chance to buy it
at a cheaper rate.
Right. And that was prior to you agreeing to take it from her, correct?
-Correct. -[Levy] What do you have to say to that?
Because he said it was $1,500.
This text message, you would agree you told him it was $2,000.
So, as he stated, this is before we actually agreed to purchase.
After talking with my husband, that's not the number we came up with.
Because we paid over... At the end of this,
-we're paying over $6,000. -[Levy] I get that.
So, what she's saying now, sir, is that prior to agreeing to sell it to you,
you had discussed, tentatively, $2,000. Right?
Yes. I would not have bought it for $2,500.
I agreed to $1,500.
I know after the dispute, he had said, um, $1,500.
And I said, no, that's not $1,500, it was $2,500.
And he had no response for that.
-[Levy] That's correct. -But that's...
Cassandra, if you could please show this over to the Defendant.
Thank you.
Mr. McNemar, I'm showing you a document that was produced by your sister,
in which you indicated to her that the price for the lawnmower
that you purchased was $1,500.
She responded, that is not our agreement, that it was $2,500.
The natural thing for you to have done was to say,
that's not true, that's not our agreement.
You would agree with that, right?
Correct, but if you read the prior texts,
there was a bunch of arguing that I wasn't trying to participate in.
I understand.
So, to me, anything I would have sent her would've continued the argument
-and harassment. -I want to talk about this broken door.
The counterclaim for $1,600.
According to your counterclaim, sir,
your sister kicked the screen door so hard, she broke it at the frame.
Her husband pulled a gun on you.
-[Mandy scoffs] -Yes.
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice...
-Now, you're the girlfriend. You work? -Yes, ma'am.
How much money did you give him toward his cancer treatments?
[narrator] Mandy Williams is suing her brother, Cody McNemar,
for over $2,500, the balance owed on a lawnmower and loan.
Cody claims he doesn't owe anything, and is countersuing for $1,600,
after he claims his sister kicked in his screen door.
According to your counterclaim, sir,
your sister kicked the screen door so hard, she broke it at the frame.
-Her husband pulled a gun on you. -Yes.
[Levy] And you filed a no trespass order against them the same day.
-Correct. -[Levy] Do you have a copy of that order?
They didn't give me a copy.
[Levy] You provided us with the police report.
-Correct? -Correct.
So, narrative: "On Tuesday, August 20th, 2024,
at approximately 12:17 hours, this officer was dispatched."
And it says that Williams was notified by McNemar,
that he had pawned the mower,
which lead to McNemar forcing her out of the residence.
So I just want to be clear. You spoke to a police officer.
-Yes. -[Levy] You spoke to the officer
about how she kicked the screen door so hard, she broke it in the frame?
-Yes. -[Levy] Her husband pulled a gun on you.
-Yes. -[Levy] None of that was in the report.
You see, when you're talking about a complaint
that someone threatened you with a gun, the police department
typically put that in a police report. Are you the husband?
-[Kenneth] Yes. -Will you please step up?
August 20th, 2024, were you with your wife at the house?
Yes.
[Levy] Did you pull a gun on him during that incident?
-No, sir. -[Levy] What did you see?
What did I see? So, I go inside with her.
Uh, we looked for the lawnmower. She's arguing with his girlfriend.
He comes out of the room, they're arguing.
And I'm like, okay, it's not here, let's go.
He doesn't want to go to the pawn shop
to let us pay for it to get the item back...
Let me stop you right there for a second. This pawn shop,
you knew that she and her husband still owed money on this lawnmower, correct?
No, I did not.
[Levy] Did you discuss that? Of course you did.
This text, it tells him that we are on the hook for the money.
[Levy] Read it.
I said, "Hey, can Kenneth come get the lawnmower?
I get that you might be struggling, but at the same time,
we're on the hook for the money. I'm not working either, Cody.
Matter of fact, we haven't gotten a payment in over a year.
It's no hard feelings. I get you've been going through it.
But if you can't pay, we gotta sell it, because we can't afford it, either.
Especially when we don't use it."
Does that help refresh your recollection--
That's after the pawn. I pawned this before she sent me that.
If I'd have known, I'd never pawned it.
-We didn't know it was pawned. -It was discussed before that.
And when we initially discussed him buying it,
it was him, your monthly payment is what we're paying,
$98 ever two weeks. That was the discussion.
I tend to agree, and I tend to believe that.
You would have no reason to sell him without telling him
that the money that you needed from him was going to be used to repay the lease.
I get that. Last question before I pass it, Mr. McNemar.
You say that you're countersuing for $1,600 to pay for the door repair.
-Correct? -Correct.
[Levy] Do you have a canceled check, Venmo, CashApp,
showing that you actually paid that expense?
No, I have an estimate of the people who--
I don't care about an estimate. Do you still live at that address?
-Yes, I'm buying that house. -No, he's not.
So, the damage you claim to the door was in August of 2024?
-Correct. -[Levy] And you haven't paid for it yet.
-No. -I have nothing further. Thank you.
I just want to revisit a couple of points. You acknowledge, sir,
that you had some obligation to pay her an amount
which is currently in dispute.
You say in your papers that it was $1,500.
The Plaintiff, you say that it was $2,500. We're clear there.
How much money do you say that you did pay her?
I paid her a total of $640.
[Tanya] Where's the evidence of that?
Um...
[Tanya] You didn't submit any, because you don't have it.
Ms. Williams, how much money do you claim your brother paid you?
So, he paid $100 through CashApp.
And then, he paid $40 cash.
And this was not long before I said I was gonna pick it up.
[Tanya] So, you say 140, you say 600.
There is certainly no dispute that at the time that you pawned the lawnmower,
you knew you hadn't finished paying her for it.
Correct.
Tell me what you did with the $1,200
that you got from the pawn shop.
I spent $800 in medication--
[Tanya] What medication did you buy?
I have the names of the medications...
Do you have the receipt for the money you spent on the medications?
I didn't think I would ever need the receipt for the medication.
[Tanya] Did you have insurance?
My insurance, I ended up losing my insurance.
What does your partner do? The witness.
-Uh... -[Tanya] Can you take the stand?
Yes, ma'am.
Now, you're the girlfriend. Would you state your name?
Danielle.
-So, Danielle, do you work? -Yes, ma'am.
How much money did you give him toward his cancer treatments?
Nothing.
Nothing. Let's just pawn the property that we don't really own.
We weren't together then.
[Tanya] Let's pawn the property we don't own.
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice...
The $1,600 that he's suing his sister for
was to repair a door that is not yet repaired.
-You heard him say that. -Mm-hmm.
Was that the truth or was that a lie?
[narrator] Mandy Williams says her brother Cody McNemar
owes over $2,500 for a lawnmower and loan.
But Cody is countersuing for $1,600
over a screen door he claims she kicked in out of anger.
So, essentially, sir, your defense boils down to,
"She came over, 'cause she was so mad, because I pawned the property
that I did not own, and she kicked down my door."
-That's your defense. -Yes.
Now, I think that there's another version of what happened that day.
And sir, could you take the stand again. Because according to them,
let's assume that she did kick down the door.
According to them, what else happened, sir? Didn't he push your wife?
Yes. Yeah. I had walked out...
[Tanya] And let me ask you, ma'am. Where were you
in relationship to the door when you allege your brother pushed you?
So, I was about maybe two or three feet from the door.
His room isn't far from the front door.
And I was sort of like in between that.
Then, he told me to leave, and I see him getting upset.
So, I turn around to leave. And then, he grabs me.
She's lying.
-[Tanya] Do you deny grabbing her? -Flat out lying.
[Tanya] You flat out deny it.
Sir, did you pull a gun on this man?
No, ma'am.
[Tanya] You say he pulled a gun on you.
They say that you pushed his wife.
Ma'am, tell me what you saw on the day of the screen door altercation.
Um, she was banging on the door really crazy.
I walked up to the door. We have no peephole,
so I just unlocked it. And as soon as I stepped back,
she pushed through me and the door.
And then, she went straight to the garage. And then, she was just like, where's Cody?
And I was just like, I don't know.
And then, she went to the room, and Cody was right there.
He's like, what? And they started arguing.
And then, he stepped out the room. And there's the doorway from the hallway.
And he was right here, the door's over here, and she was right there.
They were just arguing. He's like, if you can't calm down, leave.
She's like, all right. And so, she goes to the front door
and kicks it open. And she's like, come find me then.
So, when they start arguing outside in the front,
it was just me and Cody out there. I don't know, I was just standing there.
So, you say, somebody's angrily banging at the door,
and you're like, you know what, I'm gonna go handle this. I got you.
I mean, it just seems strange to me. And so, let's assume that happened.
You know what, Ms. Williams, I believe that something happened
with that door. And you were pretty mad that day, weren't you?
I was absolutely mad.
[Tanya] Did you kick the door?
I was never mad enough to kick the door.
-You did not kick the door. -I mean,
he's got me by, like the back of my shirt.
Did he push you out the door?
Yes, he was grabbing my shirt and pushing.
Like, I'm going the same time...
[whispers] I can't believe her.
I'm sure I hit the door with a little bit of force.
I mean, I didn't see that it was even broken.
But I would never run towards him or try to fight him.
Judge DiMango?
First of all, when all this was occurring, were you inside the home?
Uh, yes, before they went outside.
[DiMango] Did you actually go outside with them?
-Yes. -[DiMango] When you were outside,
did you see him with a gun?
Yes, ma'am. I ran inside, 'cause I was scared.
[DiMango] Mm-hmm. So, if he would've pointed a gun,
the way you would've had the police show up
was as Judge Levy was pointing out, that's not what you told them.
Even by your own testimony in here.
You requested a no trespass order.
So, that goes to your credibility, as well, with regard to the gun.
So, when you were in the house and you say that she kinda kicked or pushed the door,
how did she do that? Can you explain?
Did she kick it at the bottom? Did she push it at the top?
-What did she do? -It was kind of the middle.
'Cause where the handle thing is, you can press it like that.
It was a little underneath it, 'cause she lifted up and pushed like that.
She was walkin', she went forward with it.
That's what I wanted to know. Because this door, this here, is way up.
It's at the door. So, unless you're in the Rockettes
and a good kicker, I'm gonna guess you didn't get your leg up
to push out this window, which already looks like it's been pushed out.
And you have a $1,600 estimate for something that you've not fixed.
I don't think I have any other questions. I don't know if anyone else does.
Yes, I'm sorry. Judge DiMango just reiterated the position of your boyfriend,
Mr. McNemar, which was that the $1,600 that he's suing his sister for
was to repair a door that is not yet repaired.
You heard him say that. Was that the truth, or was that a lie?
No, the door has not been fixed.
-[Levy] It has not been fixed. -No, sir.
You recall signing a statement under oath
and presenting it to the court prior to you coming in today?
Which document?
-The signed sworn statement you gave us. -Oh, yes, sir.
Do you recall then, giving the following statement:
"On August 24th, as Mandy was leaving, she kicked the screen door open
and damaged the door and the door frame."
-Mm-hmm. Yes, sir. -[Levy] Yes?
A few days later, Cody had some people come to fix his screen door.
I said that?
[laughs] Show it to her.
I didn't say it.
Take a look on the top. That's your name, is it not?
Oh, I did say that.
[Levy] Thank you. I've got nothing further.
Okay, thank you all. We're gonna retire to deliberate at this time.
[Cassandra] Court is now in recess.
She was very credible to me, and he was not.
And anything that he could've substantiated
that would have lent him some credibility,
he didn't bring with him. Also, with regard to the medication,
if you go to one of these stores, you know, the big stores,
they'll print up anything for you and bring it out.
'Cause I get it that he said, back when I took it,
I didn't know I was gonna need it. And that rang true.
But the reality is, all he had to do was go back and say,
can you show me my list of medications and so on.
I just found her credible. I think she's entitled to the money,
the balance that she sold him the lawnmower for.
But I do want to say one thing.
I did look up the value of the used lawnmowers.
And even those that were from 2015, 2013,
were well over $1,500.
So, I can't imagine that she would have given him such a great deal
at less than $2,500.
I think she's entitled to what she's asked for,
and I believe that he gets nothing on his counterclaim.
And one other thing, somebody would've told somebody about a gun.
I mean, in an altercation like that, somebody would've said to the police,
there was a gun involved. And nobody did.
-Right. -[Levy] That wasn't in the police report.
And the Defendant was unable to explain why that was.
I believe that the Plaintiff has, in fact, met her burden
with the respect to the $2,500 agreement that they had.
And she acknowledged that he paid $140 towards the purchase price,
leaving her with $2,360 that he owes her for that.
Tanya, I thought that your examination of him
with respect to him knowing that he did the wrong thing
when he pawned the lawnmower that he did not yet own,
because he had not finished paying it off, was right on the mark.
If he didn't think it was wrong, he woulda told her he was doing it.
But he never did, 'cause he knew that the leasing company
was still taking payments on that. And for him to deny that,
was as silly as his girlfriend's statement was
when she came in and said, "Oh, yeah, I put that in my sworn statement
that someone came and fixed it, but I don't know how it got there."
They're just lying.
I think she's more than proven her case.
I think if you look at all of the circumstances
that gave rise to them showing up to the house in the first place,
-I think they were upset. -Sure.
I think her brother did want to get her outta there. I think he did.
He has no receipts for payments, he has no receipts for medication.
He has no evidence that there was ever any medication.
I just find him lacking across the board.
I would give her everything she's asking for, including the CashApp payment.
-Yeah. I do, too. -'Cause I believe her.
She gave him the money.
We're unanimous. We're gonna give her the $2,510.
Nothing to him.
Court is now back in session.
Parties are reminded that you're still under oath.
Thank you, Cassandra. Well, you know, much of what happens in a courtroom
is determined by credibility. And credibility is assessed by all of us.
Not by just what you say, but what you don't say.
And not by the evidence that you produce.
Sometimes by the evidence that you don't produce.
So, when you say you don't have proof of a pharmacy bill,
why not go back to the pharmacy and have them print out a receipt
to show what you paid or what you didn't pay?
When you say you called the police and you report a handgun being pointed,
which is an armed felony offense, that brings out a different result.
So, I think you can tell by that that the credibility issue,
the weight, the 51%, the preponderance of the evidence,
goes to you.
So, as to your main claim here,
the request for $2,510,
we believe you that you agreed to $2,500.
We believe you that he borrowed $150.
And we believe you when you say he repaid $140 of that debt that he owes you.
So, to that extent, you've prevailed.
Sir, you on the other hand, we did not find what you said credible.
And so, as to the damages, the fact that it was not repaired,
and we don't know if you will repair it.
The bottom line here is we are going to dismiss your counterclaim.
We wish that you both go on your way and spend your money wisely.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
That's the unanimous verdict of the court.
This case has concluded. All parties are excused.
It's easy for me to look aggressive, 'cause, I guess, of my size.
And she played that card.
The guy is like 6'6", over 300-some pounds.
Like why would I... That don't make sense.
I've never hit a woman in my life, pushed a woman.
This isn't the first time we've, I've had this problem with him.
There's no me and her after this, you know.
To bring me to court and then lie the way she did.
Yep. Just time to move on, family or not.
What's done is done.
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Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
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