Boobus Americanus and the legal system, part three

Now for part three of Boobus Americanus and the legal system.   As I mentioned in parts one and two, I have worked in the legal field in the State of California for a long time. And I have seen some things that would curdle your blood.  I have seen the legal system here in California up close and personal, and let me tell you what I have seen has horrified me at times.  I do want to point out that I have also seen many good things as well. But the bad things I have seen are really scary.   But Boobus Americanus thinks everything is just fine. Oh there might be a few problems but they are the exception, not the rule. You know what I say to that. Bull****!!  Problems are in many cases, the rule, not the exception.

I collected Court judgments in California for many years until just a few years ago.  I had two judgments assigned to me back in 2002 or so that were very large, over $500,000.00 each.  The judgments were default judgments meaning that the defendants did not file any answer to the complaint.

They were against two individuals who were also partners in an auto sales business where they sold used cars. The individual who assigned the judgments to me who I shall call Mr. D. had sued them both individually, as partners in their partnership, and the partnership itself. The first person, I will call him Mr. C. had actually signed an agreement with Mr. D. in which he borrowed a certain sum of money which was to be secured by used automobiles. Mr. D. never got paid anything back and he alleged that they sold the cars and kept the money, and also defrauded him. That is the reason for the very large amount of the judgments. 

I began collection proceedings and sent a garnishment notice to a finance company which Mr. D. had told me about. This finance company financed the cars for the partnership, and as the car buyers made their payments the finance company would release money into the account of the partnership. I was able to get over $65,000.00 from the first garnishment. I then scheduled judgment debtor exams for Mr. C. and his partner, Mr. T. When Mr. T. was served I received a call from his bankruptcy attorney informing me that he had filed a bankruptcy. I then requested that he fax me the bankruptcy information which he did.  His attorney also told me on the phone that Mr. T. would fight any further attempts to collect on him as he did not sign anything, and had no knowledge of what Mr. C. was doing. I had to stop my collection efforts against Mr. T. at that point although I still got to keep the money because the account with the finance company was in the name of the partnership, not the individuals.

I reviewed the exhibits that were used to obtain the default judgments and it was then that I found that the attorney was right! Mr. T. had not signed anything in any capacity! Yet the Court found him personally liable even though he had not signed anything!  His partner could legally bind him as a partner on behalf of the partnership, but he could not bind him personally to any contract. Anyone who knows the law would realize this.  Yet that did not stop the Judge, who is no longer sitting on the bench, from entering a judgment against Mr. T. personally, for over $550,000.00 even though he did not sign the contract, either personally, or in his capacity as a partner.

I also worked on a case with the pompous drunk "attorney" I mentioned here, http://boobusamericanus.blogspot.com/2012/04/boobus-americanus-as-attorneys.html and here, http://boobusamericanus.blogspot.com/2012/05/boobus-americanus-as-attorneys-part.html .He had a client who was suing a furniture company claiming the furniture they had sold him was not what they had promised. When I first got the case the client was still saying that they had not credited him back for the furniture which he had returned.  So I had prepared the default judgment paperwork for a certain amount. Later the client finally informed the “attorney” that the furniture company had in fact credited him back for the furniture which he had returned. So instead of the default judgment being around $18,000.00 or so, it was only about $4,000.00. I prepared the revised judgment paperwork But because I was working in the downstairs office I did not print out the paperwork and bring it to the second floor. Instead the office manager who was his girlfriend asked me to just save the documents in the client folder and she would print them out and submit to the Court. I saved the revised documents in the client folder and that was that. Guess what? Unbeknownst to me the office manager used all of the correct documents, except that the proposed judgment she submitted to the Court was for $18,000.00. And the Judge signed the judgment for $18,000.00 even though the supporting documents all stated that the judgment was for only around $4,000.00. When I received the filed documents back from the Court I immediately noticed the error and notified the “attorney”. He told me to go ahead and try to collect the $18,000.00 judgment even though he knew for sure that the amount was not correct. 

Now that is scary.  And those are only a few of the stories that I have to tell. Stay tuned. More to come on Boobus Americanus and the legal system.