You hired the Defendant to get rid of the pontoon boat lift.
Yep.
[narrator] Now, on Tribunal Justice...
You told him that you sold it and that you're gonna give him some money.
But you never come back.
[sighs] Right.
After dealing with this for two years, enough was enough.
'Cause you had been asking, where's my money?
Where were you?!
Why haven't you come back?!
I think you screwed up.
[stammers]
You lied!
[narrator] Today's case was filed in Walker, Minnesota.
Your Honor, this is Case #3063, Lewis vs. Schwegel.
All parties have been sworn in. You may be seated.
-[Levy] Thank you, Cassandra. -[Britt] You're welcome.
Mr. Lewis, according to your complaint, sir, you hired the Defendant
to remove and sell an old pontoon boat lift.
And you agreed with him to split the proceeds of the sale,
75% to you, 25% to him.
The Defendant said that he could sell the lift for $3,200,
which would've netted you $2,400, and him the remaining.
Unfortunately, the Defendant breached your agreement
by keeping all the money for himself. And you're suing him for the $2,400
that you would've otherwise gotten, but for his breach of that contract.
-Correct. -[Levy] And now, Mr. Schwegel,
according to your answer, you say that there was no such agreement.
You say that the Plaintiff needed this pontoon boat lift removed
to make room for his new one.
And the new one needed different legs.
And you would sell the old pontoon boat lift,
use the proceeds to offset the additional expense for those new legs.
Correct.
What was supposed to happen with the additional money, if any?
The additional money was supposed to be held within myself.
-[Levy] You'd get whatever was left over? -Correct.
Okay. So, Mr. Lewis, tell us, how was it that you came to hire the Defendant?
We had just bought a new house. So, I was looking for a lift.
I couldn't find anybody, and one of my employees said
her stepson did that for a job.
And in the new home that you had just purchased,
there was a boat lift there, but it was for a pontoon boat.
Correct.
[Levy] So, you hired the Defendant to get rid of the pontoon boat lift,
and for him to bring your fishing boat lift to the new home.
-Yep. -What was the price
that you were paying the Defendant to do the work
that we just discussed?
To move my boat lift to the new house was $1,200 cash.
-And did you pay that? -[Todd] Yes.
And did you also accept that?
For some reason, I think that, or I feel that it was $600.
-[Levy] You put in your answer $600. -Yes.
[Levy] And you sir, put in your complaint that it was $1,200.
I can guarantee it, because my lovely wife
picked the money up that day.
Ma'am, you want to step up for a moment? Six hundred or twelve hundred?
Twelve hundred. Plus, we actually paid him an extra $50 tip,
along with a 12-pack of beer.
Thank you very much, ma'am. Please.
Why don't we take a look at the pontoon boat lift, oh-one.
Okay. And that's the one you wanted the Defendant to remove and to sell.
[Todd] He took that that same day.
[Levy] And if we can take a look at oh-two, your fishing boat.
According to your complaint, the legs were too short.
-[Todd] Correct. -What, if anything, did you say to him
at that time?
He said he would order up legs and come back.
-[Levy] Come back and put them in. -[Todd] Yep.
-[Levy] Is that what you said? -Yes.
[Stetson] When I was there and was gonna go pull the old pontoon lift out,
we had talked about the pontoon lift, and I had said
that I could get rid of this pontoon lift for you
as he was looking to get rid of it.
Um, later discussion, I was going to purchase his legs for his new...
[Levy] No, I don't want later discussion.
When you were having this conversation with the Plaintiff
about the pontoon boat lift, and selling it,
and what was gonna happen to the money after you sold it,
do you remember the Plaintiff's wife being present?
No, she was not.
[Levy] So, you recall standing on the dock with the Plaintiff
discussing, however, what you were gonna do
with the proceeds of the sale of the pontoon boat lift?
-Correct. -[Levy] Now, go on.
Tell me what you claim he said.
So, we chatted a little bit about me taking the pontoon lift away.
And I had decided from that point that I would purchase his new legs
for his boat lift that he has.
And that was going to be in return of me selling the pontoon lift
that he had had existing in the water.
[Levy] Now, wait, you've been involved in the boat,
dock building, transporting business for how long?
Fourteen years.
So, what did you tell him it was worth?
I told him prior to pulling it out of the water
that I would be able to get anywhere between $3,000 and $3,200 for the lift.
So now, when you leave with the pontoon boat lift,
you were supposed to come back with the six-foot legs
-and install the fishing boat lift, right? -Correct.
'Cause you had already been paid for that.
[Stetson] Correct.
-[Levy] But you never come back. -I did not.
[Levy] To put it all in perspective, this was May.
What efforts, if any, did you make to get him back to finish the job?
Numerous conversations and texts about where are we at on the legs.
I didn't really think anything about the pontoon lift
until the following year when I went and bought the legs
and had some other guy install it.
[Levy] He didn't come back all of 2023?
This is the second time I've ever seen Stetson.
[Levy] What, if anything, is he telling you about did he sell the boat lift,
did he not sell the boat lift?
You know what, I think she may know. Step on up.
Help out.
In the Exhibits, there are numerous text messages.
Under like Exhibit Three, where he's saying,
"There's a bunch of broken welds on the lift and bent bars,
so it's not worth that much. Would you like to just do an exchange?
I'll buy all the legs for your lift.
Put them in and level and complete canopy."
So, that was on June 2nd.
So, that was after he had come initially and took the pontoon.
Where he's saying there was an agreement right away,
there clearly wasn't,
because he's trying to come to that agreement on June 2nd.
And then, Todd responded to him--
Hold on one second. You know, Mr. Schwegel,
the text message that was just read to you, you were listening, right?
-Yes. -[Levy] So, what you're saying in June?
So again, this is just not even a month later,
you're saying because of the bent bar and the welds,
it's not as much as I thought it was gonna be.
-Right? -[Amy] Correct.
What you meant by that was what you and I discussed, Mr. Plaintiff,
on the dock that day, about $3,200, I'm not gonna get $3,200 for it.
It's gonna be a little less because of these welds
that are necessary, and what have you. Makes sense?
-Yes. -[Levy] So, there was an agreement,
as far as how much money he was gonna get back.
It wasn't gonna be put in your pocket. as you originally said, right?
-Right. -[sighs] Right.
[Levy] Thank you. Judge Acker.
Thank you, Judge. So, let's just pick up from that point.
June 30th, you told him that you sold it for $800,
and that you were gonna give him some money.
You sold it for $800?
-The boat lift? -[Acker] Yeah.
No.
What were you talking about then when you said,
"I got $800 for it. What do you think is fair
if I bring the legs to you?"
When you say, I got $800 for "it,"
what were you talking about?
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Coming up, on Tribunal Justice...
I no longer have a relationship with my step-mother because of this.
And then, my dad is so with her,
that I don't have a relationship with my own father.
This doesn't have anything to do with him.
[main theme playing]
[narrator] Boat owner Todd Lewis says Stetson Schwegel owes him $2,400,
his share after allowing Stetson to sell his boat lift.
But Stetson claims they never had a deal and that any money from any sale
went to buy parts for Todd's new boat lift.
When you say, I got $800 for "it,"
what were you talking about?
[Stetson] The lift, at that time.
-[Acker] That's what I just asked you. -[Stetson] Yes.
On that time, I do have picture text messages
from the guy that purchased the lift from me which was the boss,
that shows that he had purchased the lift from me for $1,200.
Wait, I have to back up. You told him,
we're talking about your words,
Saturday, June 29th at 6:18 pm,
"Well, I got $800 for it."
We have now clarified that the "it" was in fact the pontoon boat lift.
The Plaintiff took some exception to how cheaply you sold it.
But he says in his complaint that you never gave him any proof
that you actually sold it for that amount.
Did you, in fact, sell it for $800? 'Cause that's what you told him.
I did not.
[Acker] So then, it's a lie when you say to him, I got $800 for it,
and now you're telling me that that was just made up.
Why would you tell him that you got $800 for a piece of property
if that's not, in fact, what you received?
That was gonna be my mistake that I had said I had got $800 for it.
-I got $1,200-- -[Acker] How could you be mistaken about
getting money for something
that someone gave you to sell?
And then, I'm gonna go on, because then you say to him,
a couple of months later, "Give me two weeks
and I'll come hand you $700.
Six hundred for you and an extra $100 for this inconvenience."
So now, not only are you reaffirming
that he's entitled to some portion of that sale,
you're also saying, and you know what, I kinda blew it,
so I'm gonna give you another $100.
Did you ever do that?
-I did not. -[Acker] Why?
There's not a good reason why.
I'm just gonna leave it right there.
-Uh, Mr. Lewis... -Yes?
Why are you suing for $2,400?
The initial agreement was we were gonna get $3,200,
and that's when he took the lift.
[Acker] But you also didn't fight him
when he said perhaps it wasn't worth $3,200 anymore.
After dealing with this for two years, enough was enough.
I had my current boat lift in the water, the work was done.
It was never gonna get done.
Did he ever send you proof of how much he actually did sell it for?
Never saw a bill of sale.
[Acker] That's also confusing to me, Mr. Schwegel.
I don't understand why you never sent him a bill of sale.
Why didn't you?
I've never really dealt with bill of sales before.
So, you're telling me that in the 14 years
you've been involved in the boat business,
you've never been involved in preparation of a receipt?
This is the very first boat lift
that I had received that's used, and sold.
Okay. Throughout this whole entire time as he is my step-mom's boss,
caused issues between myself and my step-mom and my dad.
Okay. And then, my dad is so with her,
that I don't have a relationship with my own father.
So, this sounds like you're mad at your dad and his wife.
This doesn't have anything to do with him.
All I see is that you told the Plaintiff you were going to do something,
and you didn't do it. So now, Mr. Lewis,
I don't know really what to do with your damages.
I don't know if it's a $700 case or a $2,400 case,
as you've suggested, but I'll discuss that with my colleagues.
Judge DiMango?
Okay. That lift, to you, the old pontoon lift
removed from your new home, was absolutely useless to you, wasn't it?
-It was. -[DiMango] It was.
And had he said nothing to you,
that would've been resting on the ground outside your home.
No. I would've pulled it out, had somebody else pull it out,
put it up on my shore and posted a Craigslist ad.
Who said sell it first?
Did you say to him, sell it or did he say to you, sell it?
I told him if he wants to take it and sell it on consignment, go ahead.
'Cause I have no use for it, 'cause I don't own a pontoon.
Now, he says that to you. Is that correct so far?
Everything besides the consignment part.
[dramatic music playing]
[narrator] Coming up, on Tribunal Justice...
You had real problems. You had gambling debt or whatever.
You owed money to your boss. What'd you owe money to your boss for?
[main theme playing]
[narrator] Boat owner Todd Lewis is suing Stetson Schwegel for $2,400,
money owed for selling Todd's old boat lift.
But Stetson says they never had an agreement.
Plus, he sold the old boat lift for money to buy parts for Todd's new boat lift.
Now, when you took it out of the water, were there any problems with it?
-[Stetson] Yes. -What were the problems?
The problems were the cross beams for the boat lift,
the structure part of it, the bars were bent,
there was multiple cracked welds to it.
Uh, there was three different pulleys that were froze up on it.
The cable was completely shot. And on top of that,
the canopy top that he had given me--
[DiMango] Didn't fit that.
-Did not fit-- -[DiMango] I know, I saw that.
Now, ultimately, your position is that you sold that lift
to your old boss. You got $1,200 for it,
as opposed to $3,200 for it. Correct?
-[Stetson] Yes. -[DiMango] You made an estimate
based on what? Limited experience? A lot of experience?
I think you screwed up. I think you screwed yourself.
-Are you working now currently? -Yes, I am.
Were you working at the time of this sale to him?
Yes, I was.
Are you in debt for anything? Do you drink, gamble, have a lot of women?
-What do you do? No problems? -No, I do not.
-No. -You sure?
I have four kids.
So, where do you come up with this $800?
Because $800 is 25% of $3,200.
So, some of your numbers are fitting in this crazy formula,
and others are not. So, if you got $800,
and you now have to carry through with giving him the money,
you need to give him back the $600, and you have the legs.
This is where it all breaks down for me. What happens here?
Okay, what happens here, if he had already purchased his legs,
now I have to figure out how to resell the legs that I had already purchased.
[DiMango] So, you're trying to get back some money from this.
-Because you spent $600. -Correct.
[DiMango] So, you spent $600. Where are the legs?
The legs are at my house.
You went out and got your own legs and had somebody else put 'em in.
Right, after a year and a half.
[DiMango] So, all you want, basically,
you say $2,400, but the reality is
you really just want three-quarters of whatever it was he made.
-[Todd] Just proof. -Proof.
So, tell me what it is that you really got,
$1,200, $1,800, $3,200? What did you get?
I got $1,200 for selling his lift.
In the text messages, you can see between me and my old boss--
Your old boss. And plus, what you laid out. So, $1,200.
If we take you at your word that you sold this for $1,200,
he gets $900 in this courtroom. Would that be about right, number-wise?
I'm not sayin' that's what's gonna happen,
'cause I don't know, we gotta all look at this.
But that would be the 25/75. Correct?
-I'm done. -[Levy] Okay.
I think that you would agree that he was just lying through his teeth.
[Todd] Correct.
And he kept changing numbers, and he kept lying to you.
Right.
[Levy] And this is why. In your answer, you made it very clear.
The day after you did the boat swap,
later that day, "I sold the pontoon lift to my boss for $1,200."
Right? So, it was just a day after, you sold it to your boss, right?
Yes.
Was that in cash?
That was money owed to him.
[Levy] So, you owed your old boss money?
And by the way, he never told you he sold it to his boss.
Never told you that he paid off a bad debt with his boss.
No.
[Levy] The day after he took it out... 'Cause you'd been asking,
"Where's my money? Where are you?!
Why haven't you come back?!
I paid you $1,200 cash
to put my boat lift for my fishing boat in, and you haven't even done that."
Right? You're getting those text messages.
Correct.
August 22nd, 2023, text message, 7:22 pm.
"What is the status of the sale of the pontoon lift?"
Your response at 8:24 pm. "I had a couple looking.
No one is buying for some reason right now."
You lied!
You said you still have it. Had a couple look.
Kickin' the tires, but no one is buying.
Schwegel, you thought you could come in here and just blatantly lie to us?
You were taking advantage of them.
You had real problems. You had gambling debt or whatever.
You owed money to your boss. What'd you owe money to your boss for?
[stammers]
[Levy] I-I-I... You're not gonna tell us anyway.
You know, I'm telling you right now, I am holding your $3,200.
Fourteen years experience in boats, lifts, moving, building.
You knew exactly what that was worth.
Thirty-two hundred dollars. Yep.
But now, June 3rd at 9:28 am. You know that text, right?
Yeah. "Forget about everything I said last night."
That's what you said. "I have a buyer
and will stick to our original plan we agreed to on the dock."
For how much?
Thirty-two... 25% of whatever...
-[Levy] Thirty-two hundred bucks. -Yeah.
Solved.
You're a liar.
Nothing further.
What was the debt for?
-The debt from my old boss? -[Acker] Yeah.
What did you owe him the money for?
He had helped me put my septic in my own place.
He paid for the septic?
-[Stetson] Yes. -Okay.
Okay, I think we're ready. We're gonna retire to deliberate.
Ma'am, you can sit. Thank you very much.
Court is now in recess. Parties will be recalled.
[dramatic music playing]
The way I look at the credibility issues here, uh,
is 100% to the Plaintiff and his wife, and a big donut to the Defendant.
He was lying six different ways to Sunday.
We now know that he sold it to pay off a debt of his.
He failed to notify the Plaintiff of that. There absolutely was an agreement.
The agreement was for $3,200.
I believe that the Plaintiff has more than met his burden,
with respect to the $2,400.
That that is in fact what he is owed, at a minimum, by the Defendant.
The question I have, though, is that with all of what we just heard
and the Defendant coming in and lying,
and the fact that he never even went back
to complete the job that he was paid $1,200 for,
which was to put into the water, the Plaintiff's fishing boat lift.
He never did that, he never came back.
I would be in favor of amending the Plaintiff's pleadings
from $2,400 to $3,200. He should get every penny
that the Defendant got for his pontoon boat lift.
And I do believe the credible evidence that it was $3,200.
And the Defendant is entitled to absolutely nothing. Zero.
So, I would like to hear what the two of you have to say.
I like that idea for a couple of reasons.
I am really put off by the fact that this Defendant
engaged in such an intentional deception for so long.
I mean, it's actually really a variety of fraud
to suggest to somebody, "Yeah, I've got your property.
I'm gonna keep trying to sell it. I'm gonna keep trying to sell it."
And stringing them along when, in fact, you've already pocketed money.
You're withholding from them knowledge about a sale
that is material information to them.
And so, I think that some punitive penalty is warranted here.
So, I would join that. I don't have a problem with that.
Okay. So, I think what makes legal cases are liars, cheaters, and scammers.
That's how we get here. So, to penalize them twice as much
because they're liars, cheaters, and scammers,
is not necessarily always warranted. So, I think what happened was,
he might've sold it to his boss for $1,200,
but he's undersold it, 'cause he just wanted out of the debt.
He's saying $1,200.
I could've been worth $10,000, and he would've given it to him.
And don't forget, he did lay out $600 for the legs that he has at home.
Hold on. Okay, with respect to that part, how do we know that?
There are things we should believe or not--
We can't take him at his word. If he's willing to lie about everything--
Then why would you take him at his word for $3,200?
All I'm saying is, I'm gonna give him $2,400,
-and not penalize him any further. -I got it.
The only thing I would add there is that if he, in fact,
deliberately undersold just so he could eradicate his own debt,
without regard to the expectations of the Plaintiff
with whom he had a business arrangement,
then I think that's even more unconscionable.
But we're making a guess then.
If we're gonna take anybody at their word, we're gonna go for $3,200.
We have that as evidence that we can accept.
If we don't accept that, then we're just wildly guessing--
We also know he didn't finish the work.
That's okay. I'm at $2,400.
So, we're unanimous as far as the Plaintiff's verdict.
Where we will differ is with respect to the amount, $2,400
versus the $3,200, and the $3,200 in the majority.
Okay? Thank you.
[dramatic music playing]
Court is back in session.
Both parties are reminded that you're still under oath.
All right. Well, we have deliberated and we've reached a unanimous verdict
as far as liability goes.
The damages, however, were not unanimous.
This is somewhat of a rare case.
First of all, Mr. Schwegel, you took a beating here today.
But you know you deserved it, right?
You did, because what you did to the Plaintiff was wrong.
You got caught at it.
We absolutely believe that you made a representation
that the value of the boat lift was $3,200.
We absolutely believe that there was an agreement for a consignment
of 75 and 25.
We also believe that you undersold that boat lift
just to get out of a debt with your boss.
Didn't make any difference, you owe $1,200.
That's what you were going to give him the boat lift for
and string along the Plaintiff as you did.
And you were never gonna go back and finish the job
that he'd already paid you for.
Now, where are we with respect to judgment?
Judge DiMango would award you $2,400
for what was your 75% consignment of a $3,200 boat lift.
Okay.
Judge Acker and I, however, are in agreement
that that would not be fair, it would not be just,
and it most certainly would not be consistent
with the fact that the Defendant did not even finish the job
for which he was paid for, to put that boat lift back in the water.
So, we amended your complaint.
Not $2,400, but the full $3,200
for which we know that that boat lift was worth.
Thank you.
He should not benefit a nickel for doing what he did to you.
So, it is the unanimous verdict in this court
that you succeed on your claim.
And it is a split verdict with respect to judgment
in your favor of $3,200 from the Defendant.
-Thank you. -Thank you.
This case has concluded. All parties are excused.
[triumphant music playing]
I feel that, uh, the decision was wrong.
I believe it's been a couple years comin'.
That was one of the jobs I just couldn't take pride in.
There's just a lot of inconsistencies, I think, in his story.
That's where things started to get rocky between the Plaintiff and myself.
That's when we moved ahead and paid somebody else to do that job.
Normally, when I do something, I don't like to, uh, come back and do it.
We've been good ever since.
I'm ready to put this behind me.
We're happy it's over. It's a fair judgment,
so we're pleased with everything.
[narrator] Did someone break an agreement?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
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[theme music playing]