You wanted to buy a grain bin to put in your yard.
[DiMango] It's called a binzebo.
So I said, "When can you deliver it?"
-Couple weeks. -But ultimately, you ghosted them.
Well, I had, we had lined up to deliver it.
-You don't respond for 12 days. -And your response, sir,
was, "I'm going to be white about it and get you a refund."
What does that mean? "I'm going to be white about it."
I meant to say, "Do them right." I have a lot of typos.
The bottom line here is they don't have anything from you yet.
[narrator] Now, on Tribunal Justice...
Today's case was filed in Windhom, Minnesota.
Your Honor, this is Case #3067, Brevig and Brevig versus Cate.
-Thank you, Cassandra. -You're welcome.
[Britt] You may be seated.
-Miss Brevig, Your first name is... -Trisha.
Trisha, and Miss Brevig, your name is...
-Destiny. -[DiMango] Destiny.
So, you and your wife went to Mr. Cate's yard sale
where he has antiques and other items for sale.
I love this case, because this is something I've never seen before.
You wanted to buy a grain bin.
You were gonna pay $800 for it, and he said he would dismantle it
and he would deliver it to you for free. And he never did.
Actually, at some point, you said you were going to sue him,
and that was the only time he made any effort
to kind of do anything with you. At some point,
he commented about your relationship, and you want him to return the $800,
and you wanted the $70 filing fee, making this lawsuit for $870.
Mr. Cate, what you say is that you would have delivered it,
but you wanted to wait till the spring. They had agreed to do that, at first.
They thought that you didn't like lesbians,
but you made some stupid comments, and that's not true.
Then, when they wanted their money back, you said, "Forget it.
I'm not doing this. Sue me." And here you are being sued.
-That's fine. -[DiMango] Sometimes, we get
what we ask for.
I love-- You got to put up the grain bins.
Wherever we are. Let's do first 01.
[DiMango] This is what you were buying for $800, right?
-[Destiny] Correct. -[DiMango] Now most people would look
and say, "What are they, crazy?
-Where they gonna put that thing?" -[laughter]
[DiMango] And this is to put in your yard.
It's called a binzebo. Is that correct?
-Yes, Your Honor. -[DiMango] Maybe it's a little soon,
but I want to see it myself Let's put it up.
Oh-eight, look at that. I like the whole idea of that.
[Destiny] Just, that is actually just like an inspiration photo
-of what we want to do with one. -[DiMango] Oh!
-Yeah, yeah. -You still have their bin?
-Yes, ma'am, I do. -Have many have you sold before?
About thirty, forty of them.
[DiMango] Wow. And is that the going rate, $800 or--
Much more. Much more. If I dismantle one, palletize it, and ship it,
I get anywhere from $1,800 to $2,200.
So why'd you give them such a good deal for, uh, if you say--
Uh, they were local, they were there, they had cash.
Um, you know, and I wasn't going to have to do any shipping, really.
So I threw in the shipping for free.
You bought some other things. I know you bought a door for something.
Was it for this?
-No, it was, uh, for inside of our home. -[DiMango] Like a barn door?
Yes, with a lot of glass windows. Very beautiful. We have it on our home.
That's nice. I would like to have seen a picture of that, too.
[DiMango] So you give him a check for $1,000,
which we have a copy of.
And this is the end of September, September 28th
that you make this purchase.
And then right away you send him a message saying, "Hey, listen,
when can we get this? We're going to go away for a couple of weeks."
And that's what causes a little bit of discrepancy.
[DiMango] You say, "Can we get it before or after?"
And you say, "I'll deliver it when you get back from your trip."
-Uh... -[DiMango] So now, in your head,
you're thinking you're going to get this in two weeks.
In his head, he's not thinking anything like that.
It seems, um, based on the fact that you're all here.
So, then periodically you say, "Can you get back to us?
We haven't heard from you." And his answer to you is,
"Hey, listen, it's my busy season, and it's when the harvest is done."
Now, when is, generally, when is the harvest done?
-Usually by November. -[DiMango] November?
And by then the ground was froze.
So it'd be difficult to drive stakes into the ground to chain it down.
And then you're talking about the winds being very windy.
And why would that matter in this case?
Uh, the wind will catch it and it'll fly just like a kite.
And it's metal, of course.
So it's, you know, dangerous for the guys doing it and the integrity of the bin.
-But they understand, right? -Correct.
They say to you, you know, "Thanks for letting us know."
So they still want to know. We're into October, into November.
And then, you know, they start to be a little bit more persistent with you.
Correct. Then there's-- throughout the process
there's about a two week delay in between quite a few messages.
Um, so, towards, I think it was November 4th,
is finally when we said, you know, "If we don't get this,
we're going to have to ask for our money back."
He never replied after that.
And it was then our next message saying, "We really have no choice but to take this
-to small claims." -[DiMango] And now things
-start to get ugly. -[Destiny] Correct. Correct.
-Yes. -Now, everybody's edgy.
And you can't understand why they can't wait,
because your feeling is they can't put it together now, anyway.
The ground's too hard and all of that.
And how do you get it to their home?
Uh, on a flatbed hauler truck.
Uh. Dismantle it in two halves or all apart,
which I tried to talk to them about, also.
Even tried to get him involved in it.
If they come up, we could take it apart so they know how to put it back together.
[DiMango] But you wanted them to come
back to where you were so they could watch you take it apart,
-to put it back-- -I offered that.
-Your Honor...
[DiMango] Did you want to do that? That would have been interesting.
It was never mentioned. Throughout his text messages,
he tells us, "Hey, I haven't seen you offer come to help."
And it's just like that was never the agreement.
I meant I wanted to do that with them so that I want a happy customer.
All right, so now we get to you saying you're not going to let them
push you around. And they say to you...
-What? -We want the bin or the $800.
-[DiMango] The $800. -They have threatened me
that they worked for the law enforcement agency.
Okay, so I see-- that's in here. I have that here.
[DiMango] Now I think it was a threat, too, personally.
But, you know, she's saying my wife works for the Sheriff's Office.
-Right? -Correct.
And then you get testy, say, "Oh, don't threaten me."
And they say, "We're not threatening you.
I'm just letting you know this isn't a criminal matter. It's a civil matter."
So yeah, but the bottom line was you had their $800,
and they don't have anything from you yet.
What do you say in response to, "We want the bin or the money"?
What kind of stupid thing do you say now?
[narrator] Coming up, on Tribunal Justice...
The real sticking point here was the $70 for filing fees.
-Mm-hmm. -What happened, sir,
when they said to you, "Give me the $870 for the filing fee"?
[theme music playing]
[narrator] Trisha and Destiny Brevig are suing Daniel Cate for $870,
the amount paid for a grain bin they wanted to turn into a backyard binzebo
plus court filing fees.
But Daniel claims they knew delivery would take months.
They breached the agreement, so he owes nothing.
What do you say in response to, "We want the bin or the money"?
But what kind of stupid thing do you say now?
I was only-- I had asked who wore the pants in the family?
No, that's not the-- that's the second stupid thing you said.
The first stupid thing was, "Let me guess, you're voting for the lady?"
-Yup. -[DiMango] "Just kidding."
That's what he says. I mean, you wipe that one off pretty quick.
I mean, the point is, they're not bothered by that.
Nobody's bothered by that.
But it's just like now you're getting to a point where it's, now it's personal
-between all of you. -Right.
Um, you're telling them, "Just do what you think is right."
And meanwhile, you're going to continue to disassemble and mark the pieces
and deliver it. Although, I do know now
that you didn't do that yet, but it didn't seem to me
he wasn't going to do this.
I think it wasn't going to be on your timeline.
And the more it wasn't on your timeline, the more frightened you became
that he was really not who you believed he was
-when you first made the transaction-- -[Destiny] Yes.
[DiMango] and the deal.
When we first initially talked to him, he said, because I said,
"When can you deliver it?" "Couple weeks."
[DiMango] I never saw that. I'm going to tell you--
No, when we were in his house the first time.
If it would have been spring, which she's claiming,
-[DiMango] Mm-hmm. -we would have never paid him in full.
Never gave him the full amount of money.
See, I think there was just a total lack of communication.
The bottom line here is, do you still want it?
-No. -You don't want it anymore.
I mean, I really do, but I don't trust it.
But the real sticking point here was the $70 for filing fees.
-Mm-hmm. -Yes.
What happened, sir, when they said to you, "Give me the $870
-for the filing fee"? -Well, I had we had lined up
to deliver it. Um, I told them I was stopping everything,
getting my crew. We were going to put it on a truck and bring it,
and we had already had everything lined up.
And that's when Tricia said that she wanted eighty
eighty, seventy, eighty more dollars more.
-[DiMango] Seventy. -And I just, I said, "Hey,
I'm going all out on the limb. I'm stopping everything.
We're going to deliver it for you." And she wouldn't do it.
Your Honor, it's... we did not have anything set.
He offered to deliver. It was January 4th.
-[DiMango] That's right. -Two months since the last time
we have talked to him. And we sent the last message.
He never sent anything back.
Two months later, he says, "You want the bin, or do you want to go to court?"
The only reason he talked to us two months later
is I'm assuming he got his mail.
Let me just make one final point here. What this is, is a breach of contract.
The contractual agreement was, "We give you $800,
you deliver us the bin for free."
If they breached it, well, you keep the bin, the $800.
If you breached it, they get back their money.
Or the bin, if they wanted that. But I get it, they don't trust the bin.
So the reality here is based on all of these messages and what you've said
in here, who was the one that was first to breach this?
And that's where we end this.
-Judge Levy. -You know, I don't view this case
as all that difficult. There was a little confusion.
And where that confusion started...
was on September 28, when...
you saw an advertisement that the Defendant had posted
on Facebook Marketplace. 'Cause you do that often?
-Yes, Sir. -[Levy] So let's take a look at that.
That is your Facebook marketplace ad, Mr. Cate?
-Correct. -[Levy] Right.
And when you saw it on that day,
you're like, "Whoa, that looks pretty cool."
September 28th, let's go take a ride.
And then in a field is where you saw the bin that we had seen before.
Yeah. I think I had just mentioned to him when we were checking out,
"Are those grain bins for sale?"
And he said, "I'll take it down, I'll dismantle it, I'll deliver it."
-Eight hundred bucks. Sold. -[Levy] Well, hold on, not yet.
-What the case is about is the delivery. -Right.
The delivery date, because it's your position that a part of the contract
was that it be delivered within two weeks or so.
-Correct. -Correct.
[Levy] And it's your position, if I understand you, Mr. Cate,
that was never your understanding.
Two weeks was nowhere discussed, and instead, you always had in your mind
-it was going to wait until the spring, -Through the winter time.
-Right. After the winter. -Conditions were right.
-So March or April in the spring. -Correct.
You heard them discussing that it was going to be put up in the spring,
and in your mind, as busy as you were, no fault of your own,
you just figured, that's when they want me to deliver it.
Boop! I'm busy. I got until the spring.
-Correct. -[Levy] And the only reason why
I figured that out were the text messages.
So I'm going to go through them, which is why I love them.
Yes.
Uh, Friday, October 4th is when you ladies sent to the Defendant a text saying,
"We will be gone next week from Wednesday to Saturday."
And to Judge DiMango's point about lack of communication, again,
you're super busy. You got harvest,
you don't respond for 12 days. Mhm...
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Coming up, on Tribunal Justice...
I know you're probably feeling uncomfortable,
because you never thought that you'd be in this situation
where the judge was going to be a Black woman asking you,
"What did you mean by saying 'I'm going to be white about it'?"
[main theme playing]
[narrator] Trisha and Destiny Brevig bought a grain bin from Daniel Cate
to convert into a backyard binzebo, but Daniel never delivered it.
They're suing for $870, money they paid for the bin and court filing fees,
but Daniel said they knew delivery would take months.
It's still there, so he owes nothing.
October 14th, they text you back.
"Hello, Dan. Just wondering if you had a timeframe
that you would be delivering our binzebo?"
No response from him for another two days.
On October 17th, you sent a follow-up text.
"I'm free for a call tonight if you're available."
And you say, "Just got in. If you're up, give me a call."
And you called right away, and there wasn't an answer.
And then you called again, and there wasn't an answer,
-Correct. -[Levy] Two days later
is when you send them a text.
"I'll start dismantling the bin tomorrow.
Sorry, but the wind has been bad, and we haven't been able to work safely in it.
Harvest is about done, so I'll be available."
That was your text on the 19th.
And they respond immediately in your text.
It's not even like 2:50 and then 3 pm. It's at the same--
They're like so happy to hear from you.
"I appreciate you letting me know and communicating with us.
We understand it takes some time and you're busy. No worries.
We have a spot for you." Bop bop, bop bop. "Thanks, Dan."
And then no word from you again for 10 days.
-[Destiny] Right. -And they're like,
"Uh, I thought I had him.
I thought, I thought we were going to be able to get that done."
And again, you're super busy. This is your busy time of year.
But, again, from their perspective, maybe he is going to take our money.
I will tell you this, I'm a somewhat of a super sleuth.
So I want to know what people are, who they are before they come in.
I want to know if people have done shady things in the past.
You know, if you've done something in the past, doesn't necessarily mean
that you're doing anything right here, but I want to know if there's a history.
There's no history with you.
There's no other complaints about him. He's run a good business.
Anything else, we'd be having a much different conversation right now.
So I want to put that out there, but at the same time,
after the seventh day on November 4th, you know, if we don't get an answer
from you, we're going to have to start the process through the courts.
And you responded that night.
"Oh, my God, really? Go ahead."
That was the breakdown. Do I have that right?
-Absolutely. -[Levy] Judge Acker.
It seems that the breaking point was your insistence
that he not just give you the bin or your money back,
-but you wanted that $70. -Absolutely.
[Acker] Why were you stuck on that?
Because we didn't hear from him for two months.
So we had to drive to his county.
We had to pay $70 to file, and only then did he communicate with us.
But we had to pay $70 to even get to this point.
So we wanted that $70.
And your response, sir, was, "We'll just go to court.
Not playing around. I'm a busy man.
I feel like I bent over backward."
How were you bent over backwards when they still don't have the property,
and they're still out $800?
Uh, 'cause when it came right down to it, I offered to deliver it right now to 'em.
-I mean, I was over my busy time. -But things got so contentious.
Because you continue in the text message, you say, "We'll see
what the judge says either way.
I'm going to be white about it and get you a refund
when this one sells or judge orders something different."
Now, I know you're probably feeling uncomfortable,
because you never thought that you'd be in this situation
where the judge was going to be a Black woman asking you,
"What did you mean by saying, 'I'm going to be white about it'?"
But I give you my word, I judge you fairly,
and that's the least of your problems here.
What does that mean? "I'm going to be white about it."
Um, I meant to say "Do them right." And if you look through my
texts, I have a lot of typos.
You actually do. You're a terrible typist.
Yeah. And I just want to clarify that there was no pun intended
in that whatsoever. I was really trying to turn the whole thing around
-and put an end to it. -But I still don't believe
he would have delivered it. Even though if we would have said,
"Okay, deliver it within two weeks, no $70."
I still don't truly believe he would have said--
-'Cause it had been a long time. -[Destiny] Right.
So I don't know that that--
I'd still give them a bin of their choice. I got 10 of them right now.
They could have any one they wanted.
[Destiny] Thank you. But we do not want a bin.
Maybe to, like, make it all right, you'll, like, throw in some free stuff.
-Absolutely. -[Acker] Okay, there we go. Done.
-I have nothing else. -I want to see the videos about
how it's moved. I know we have a couple of videos,
-[DiMango] So let's see-- -It's-- It's a process.
[DiMango] Yeah, I would imagine it is. Let's just see what you got here.
What am I looking at? Oh, the inside, right.
[Daniel] Yeah, here we are. We're taking it and, uh, securing it to skids
so that we can pull it onto a truck.
-[DiMango] Oh, wow. -[Daniel] Um. It's on the inside of it.
Um. I know it looks like piece of junk, but it's the patine,
-they call it, because of the what. -[DiMango] Yeah.
-So, they're huge. -They can be.
-[DiMango] You have it. -Oh, yes, ma'am, I do.
I think, ladies, it's out of time, however, for you.
You know? You might not want that, either.
-[laughing] -Anyway, thank you all.
I love this case. I love the whole idea of this binzebo thing.
And hopefully, you will go home happy, everybody.
-We'll see. -Thank you.
-[DiMango] We're going to retire. -Thank you.
-Court is now recess.
Parties will be recalled.
[dramatic music playing]
Sometimes, a breach can be intentional, and I think here
there was a breach by the Defendant, but I really think that it was
an unintentional breach. I think there was just a miscommunication.
I think he had every intention of giving it to them at some point in time,
but it was on his schedule.
They, of course, were rightfully concerned that after his disappearing
for a couple of weeks here and there, and they kept wanting to remind him,
you know, we're still here. We're not forgiving.
You know, it's not like we don't want this bin.
We do. So can you please bring it?
Can you please bring it?
I'm not giving them the $70. We just don't do that.
We don't give them filing fees. I think they really want the bin.
I feel bad for them because I think they really want it.
If you tell them, perhaps, that the court is not inclined,
because we don't do the filing fees, we will if there's some behavior
on the part of the Defendant that is so outrageous.
We've done that in the past.
But to your point, I agree this was just a misunderstanding.
If they knew that, and they still like the idea of a binzebo...
-They can. -They don't want it from him.
They're afraid he's going to put a hole in it or something.
I actually don't think he would do that.
-I don't, either. -Neither do I.
-I understand. -Yeah.
I understand them being concerned, and I don't think he would ever do it.
It's not worth it to him. He said this is how he makes his money.
He buys these things and gets them for nothing.
He sells them. I mean, when you think about taking that apart,
that's a lot of work, and then loading it and putting it together.
To suggest to them that if you still have a plan of getting a binzebo,
whoever you're going to buy it from is going to charge you shipping.
You now see what it's going to cost to take down from one place
and to ship it to your home.
At the end of the day, the reason why it fell apart,
and I truly believe this, is because he in his mind
heard them say, "We're going to put it up in spring."
I am convinced that he heard spring. Boom.
-He shut everything else off. -And they heard,
"After I get back, that's two weeks."
But he could have said at some point when they are
saying, "Hey, where is it? Where is it?"
You know, just, "I thought we said spring."
Like, he never really corrects at the end of November.
-No, I didn't get-- -In November, he does.
I didn't get spring a real sense. I got more of when the harvest is over
-and the wind stopped. -I actually think that he just got busy.
I mean, look, he sources all, we saw all that stuff on his property.
He sources those things. He gets them ready for sale.
He's delivering things. I literally think he just got overwhelmed.
I think he got his back up, as people do when they are threatened with a lawsuit.
They get $800 back.
If he was being serious out there, maybe he'll throw in a little kicker,
because I don't think that he is necessarily
as bad a businessman as this exchange
and some of those text messages might suggest.
So, you know, they want to do business down the road,
let them do business down the road.
They come back, and they give it to them for the same price.
-That's all I would say. -Okay.
We're unanimous. We're going to give her $800.
Sure.
[dramatic music playing]
Court is back in session. Both parties are reminded
-that you're still under oath. -[DiMango] Thank you, Cassandra.
You know, I know you both want that bin.
I know. And you're going to have an opportunity to go buy one,
because we've decided that, not that you were untrustworthy,
but there wasn't really wasn't a meeting of the minds
with regard to what was going on.
But ultimately, you ghosted them to the extent that
they could believe that they were not gonna
get the bin or the money.
So, we found that you are entitled to your $800.
Not the $70.
So you were right about that, sir. They weren't going to get it.
You said take it to the judges, because we don't give the $70
-for the filing fees... -Yep.
[DiMango] but I do want to say,
I don't know if you're going to find one for that price again,
-but maybe if you go back, they come back, -Maybe.
[DiMango] maybe you'll give them the same thing for the same price.
-Absolutely. -[DiMango] Yeah.
We think this was a negligent issue, not an intentional breach of contract
by you, sir. There wasn't a time of the essence discussion here.
And so based on that, you're going to get your $800 back.
And send a picture when you get yours and you put it together
because I would really like to see what you both do with it.
-And that's the verdict of the court. -Thank you.
$800 to the Plaintiffs. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Your Honor. If you'd ever like a binzebo,
-I'd sure like help you. -[DiMango] I do want one.
-Are you gonna deliver it? -[audience laughs]
-For a fee. -[DiMango] I mean really.
And I need it before spring.
[laughing]
-Dismantle it. -I'm gonna hold you to that.
-Thank you. -This case has concluded.
All parties are excused.
[triumphant music playing]
I was hoping that I could work something out with the gals here
and get their gazebo to them, but...
I still would like the grain bin.
But we understand that the integrity is probably not there.
Uh, it didn't go my way.
We felt like we were being attacked, and at that point, we were--
We were pretty done with him.
The only thing I had ever asked 'em is who was in charge, you know.
-And, uh, went from there. -There was way more to it.
I don't think he simply just forgot.
Communication breakdown and you know,
it was a busy time of year for me.
We'll just have to keep looking.
[narrator] Did someone break an agreement?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
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