So to recap a bit....
I was hired by a Dishonorable, Dishonest, Despicable, and Deranged jeweler to work on his 4 million dollar home in Flemington, NJ. After I refused to do work that was out of the scope of my contract and knowing that I wouldn't be paid for it, the jeweler asked me to leave. Weeks went by and I had not received the "promised" check, so I went to see him.............He told me that he was NOT going to pay me, and he turned to pick up the phone behind the counter...."I'm calling the police"
I don't know how I stayed calm at this point, but I went almost nose to
nose with him and said, "Go ahead, call the police, they'll arrest you,
because you're the thief! And just to give you a heads up, I'll see you
in court"
So the following day I went to see an attorney friend of mine.
We went over all of the paper work, and lucky for me I had pictures. He explained to me that I had a good case indeed and I should pursue it wholeheartedly. He told me that I could sue him for all of the extra work, and I could even sue him for unnecessary stress, and I should also sue him for having to replace my transmission because he neglected to plow the driveway. My friend was looking for blood. I said to him that I didn't want to sue him for everything under the sun, and since there was nothing in writing about the extras, I would just look like a fool. He somewhat agreed, and then encouraged me to represent myself in court.
So it was to be....I was going to be my own lawyer!
Luckily for me, my wife is very smart and helped file the suit against the jeweler, and we both looked into the legality of our claims. I was very confident that I was going to get my money from this crook.
Two weeks went by and I received a certified letter from the jewelers attorney. I actually thought that the jeweler somehow came to his senses and decided to pay the money that he owed me. I opened the letter with an internal grin, and much to my surprise there was a court document saying that the jeweler was COUNTER SUING ME!! I was floored by the arrogance of this man, and it just gave me a heightened sense of determination to teach this man a lesson.
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| The court room! |
The day came for our court date and I was ready! The weatherman called for a very rainy day, but that morning it was just a light rain, and it felt good on my face as I walked to the courthouse. My wife and I went up to the second floor of the huge marble-laden court house, and found the room in which we had to wait for the first case to be over with before we could enter.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the jeweler with his attorney.....
The attorney was a small middle aged man, who was smartly dressed. It was obvious that the jeweler had pointed me out because right after I saw the jeweler whisper something to the attorney, the attorney grabbed the jewelers arm and they made a u turn and sat on the other side of the building. That just gave me a bit more confidence, not that I needed anymore because I was fired up and I couldn't wait to get in and make a fool of this guy.
We were called in around 10 am. The Judge asked "Mr. DiTaranto, where is your attorney?" I replied "Your honor, I will be representing myself, and I'm ready to go" This got a small chuckle from someone behind me. "Are you sure Mr. DiTaranto? because this case may be complicated enough to warrant an attorney" I explained to the judge that I had all the necessary evidence and paper work to proceed with the case. He smiled at me and said "Well then, let's begin! Mr. DiTaranto....state your case"
I was on fire and didn't miss a beat. I presented most of my evidence to the court. I explained that he kept making changes to the plans without confirming any compensation for these changes, and that the required space for the fireplace was in question, and it turned out to be wrong as per the architects letter that I presented......in which I repaired, again without any written confirmation of compensation. I told the court that he insisted that I do the work of his Architect, and his Framer, and his Roofer. I submitted pictures of the roof rafters, and the window that was too close. I also submitted pictures of the fireplace before I changed it to a herringbone design, and then another picture of the fireplace with the herringbone firebox.
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| Not me..... |
The Judge was impressed with the work, and made a statement "Nice work Mr. DiTaranto, maybe I'll give you a call sometime" He laughed, the bailiff laughed, I laughed, and most of the people sitting behind us laughed...the jeweler didn't laugh. I was finished and sat next to my wife with my chest out and my head held high, because I knew that I killed this thing. I felt like Perry Mason! I was totally confident that no matter what they came back with, they couldn't take anything away from my testimony.
That's when the lies and the drama began!
The attorney gets up and walks in front of me with a picture of the fireplace that I had built. "So, Mr. DiTaranto,.....so this is what you call GOOD work?! If you had done this for me I would have fired you also!" He ran over to the judge and handed the picture to him.
"Your Honor, I'm sure that Mr. DiTaranto didn't or wouldn't show you THIS picture of his work! Look how sloppy the work is, there are cement stains all over the brick! My client, the jeweler has had nightmares about how he was going to live with this mans sloppy work!" He slowly walked back in front of where I was sitting and asked me
"Didn't you realize that you were working on a multimillion dollar home, and your work was far less than acceptable?! I'm sure you understand that the jeweler just couldn't have you finish up there with THAT kind of sloppy work...WELL??!!"
I looked him straight in the eyes, as he didn't intimidate me like he believed he would, and replied.
"Well Mr. Attorney (not his real name) I wasn't given the chance to finish the job, and that is not a finished product. You see, when the fireplace is completed, we wash it down with a light acid wash, which washes off any cement that may have fallen on the brick, and the finished product, which that isn't, would be beautiful!"
He shook his head in disgust, and walked back to his table to pick up a piece of paper. " Your Honor, this man, Mr. DiTaranto, failed EVERY single inspection, and when he finally did pass the ONE inspection, it was party time for Mr. DiTaranto,. it was apparently such a accomplishment for this man, that he called my client to tell him that he finally passed, and demanded a check from him!...Isn't that true Mr. DiTaranto??!!"
"No, Mr Attorney, that is 100% false! You see, I went to the township and got a printout of all the inspections that were performed on the jewelers house, and if you look under the heading of "Fireplaces" there were three inspections that were performed on said fireplace, and EVERY ONE of them passed!! And the only time that I asked him for a check was when we both agreed that I would leave his job."
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| Crazy attorney, drama queen! |
The attorney slammed both of his hands on the table in front of me and yelled, "Mr. DiTaranto, isn't it a FACT that you built this said fireplace wrong, and you were forced, by the township to tear most of it down, and when you started again, you overbuilt it and had to take the exterior wall of the house down, therefore weakening this wall forcing my client Mr. jeweler to seek out an engineer to make sure that this wall was structurally sound??, WELL, Isn't that true Mr. DiTaranto??!!"
"No, again, Mr. Attorney, I'm not sure where your getting your "facts" from, but they're all wrong. I have the original blueprints here, and a letter from the architect stating that this space was NOT for a masonry fireplace, but a gas fireplace which requires much less room. Before I started the job I brought this to the attention of Mr. Jeweler and he told me that he was an engineer in Russia, and not to question his requests"
"Oh really?, Mr.DiTaranto, you claim to be such a great and wise contractor, and yet you rely on my clients interpretation of the codes??? I find this ridiculous!" He went back to his table, bent over and whispered something into the jewelers ear. The jeweler looked over at me and said "Why do you lie? I just wanted nice fireplace on my home. You make nightmare, and I can't even look at you!"
The attorney pulled a piece of paper out of his briefcase and claimed "Your honor, we have here a bill for the re-building of the fireplace. Mr.Jeweler just couldn't live with what this man had done, so he hired this other contractor to knock Mr. DiTaranto's horrible work and rebuild it the right way" As he went to hand the judge the paper, I broke in and said, "Your Honor, I find that very suspicious, because I was at the jobsite two days ago to pick up some of my equipment that I couldn't get to because of the snow, and my fireplace was still there and has not been touched!"
The judge asked Mr. Jeweler if that was true, and the jeweler stuttered, "Ahhh, well, I hired him to do this work. He has not started yet, but he will be there today" The Judge said that the bill was inadmissible, as was all of the pictures that they handed in. I was flying!! Then the judge looked over and said "Okay, let's break for lunch. When we come back at 1:00 we will hear closing arguments"
As we left the room, I got a few thumbs up from the people sitting behind us. My wife and I went for lunch at a local restaurant. We sat there and as I talked, she wrote down every word of the closing statement. We were so happy that our case was so strong, and we were totally confident of our success, that we hardly ate anything. As we headed back to the court house it started raining so heavy that we were completely soaked as we ran from our car to the courthouse. When we walked in the bailiff form our case was in the lobby, and offered us a towel. We gladly took it and thanked him, and he replied "you're doing a GREAT job up there!" I was so happy to hear this and asked him if he thought I would win the case.
"Without a doubt! But remember one thing...this judge never gives the whole amount, but you'll get most of your money, you can bet on that!"
We both gave our closing statements. Mine was sincere and heartfelt, his was dramatic, and pretty much all lies.
The Judge looked right at me and said "I want to tell you that I think you did a stand up job stating your case Mr. DiTaranto" And then he turned to the court clerk and said. "I have come to a decision. Mr. DiTaranto, your testimony was very good and I believe that what you said here today was the truth" I WAS GLEAMING! "The court finds in favor of you" My insides were cheering, and I looked over at my wife and we both smiled at each other in triumph.
Then the judge turned to the jeweler...."Mr. Jeweler, Your case was also strong, and I believe your testimony, so the court also finds in favor of you"...?????WTF????????? I heard gasps coming from behind me. I looked over at the bailiff, and he was also in shock, and looked at me and shrugged his shoulders in disbelief.
I was stunned and about to collapse on the floor, and the judge asked me "Do you understand, Mr. DiTaranto?" I'm sure that I resembled a deer in the night road staring at oncoming headlights, and I uttered, "Yes, I think I do..."
The judge then explained what was going on, " you sued Mr. Jeweler for $6,500, and he won the counter suit which is $9,800.00, so you owe Mr. Jeweler $3,300.00. Do you understand?" In shock even more, I replied, "Well not really, but if you think that's fair then what can I say about that?" The judge hit his gavel on his bench "Case closed....bring in the next case"
As we walked out, the people behind us were saying things like "somethings wrong here" and "no way that liar won"....I agreed. The jeweler and his attorney were right behind me and the jeweler leaned over and whispered in my ear.."I told you, not to sue me....now you owe me money" he laughed. I turned around, and stopped him and said "Try to collect it, there was some really funny shit going on here, and you can bet that this isn't over".
It took six appellate lawyers before I finally got one who was honest or brave enough to take the case, as he saw that there was definitely something fishy going on. We were thinking that the Jeweler must have had lunch with the Judge and maybe gave him a watch for his wife, or told him to come into the store anytime and pick something out. But there is NO WAY that two people can "win".
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| Nice Roman coins found on the Shores of Italy! nudge nudge..wink wink (hint) |
We won the appeal, but I paid for the lawyer and I never got a dime from that Crook, as "his company" had gone bankrupt again, but he is living comfortably in his mansion on the hill.....with MY brickwork looking him in the eyes when he comes down his winding stairs.
Any time I get a chance I tell people to avoid doing business with him, because he's a thief! There is a hint in this picture....if you really want to know who this crook is!
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