a tip that may help some who feel they've

[larryccf]

been cheated in a purchase / sale.

1st - i am not an atty, but have been a national market vendor since the early 1990s and this helped me recover almost $3000 on a bad deal

i'd been cheated on a deal by someone in georgia, almost 900 miles away. I spoke with two attys, both friends who had represented me in the past, and both indicated i had to file suit in georgia. The problem with that is, the defendant, if i filed in georgia, would / could simply call into court the morning of the hearing that "his car had broke down", his mother was in the hospital, whatever excuse and ask for a continuance and in most cases the court will grant the first and even 2nd continuance request (i used to own a number of apartments and this was standard practice for tenants that i had to file against, for whatever reason).

To fly to Georgia for a hearing the night before, only to show up and find out the defendant had called in to the court, the morning of court, for a continuance would have been frustrating and added considerable expense, so even winning would mean loosing more in expenses than the original loss.

By accident, in conversation with another attorney, i learned i could file suit in my home town, that under a federal statute, the purchase/ sale are assumed to have occurred in the city/state of the purchaser IF THE SELLER HAS ADVERTISED IN ANY NATIONAL MEDIA (PRINT, TV / RADIO OR INTERNET).

What that does is put the court case in your home court and removes the leverage the defendant (seller) would have in the earlier scenario. I was told the logic of the court of jurisdiction being in the purchaser's hometown was the same as sales tax not being collected by a seller shipping to an out of state buyer - again that the purchase / sale are presumed to have occurred in the jurisdiction of the purchaser.

When i filed locally, the first step the seller did was to hire a local atty to appear who filed a motion to change the venue to a court in georgia - we showed the judge the federal statute and motion was denied. What also helped was defendant's attorney had a chance to meet my witness who was present when the shipment arrived and had helped me open it, and assess that witness's credibility.

Next thing i knew, i rcvd a call from the seller, the same seller that had hung up on me when i had called to find out how he reconciled his product description with what he had shipped - his response before hanging up was "John (someone we knew in common) had warned me you'd be a troublemaker" ?????? -

now he's on the phone to me, telling me we needed to "straighthen out this mis-understanding". I corrected him - "Joe, there hasn't been any mis-understanding - you screwed me and now i'm going to screw you, plain & simple, what you shipped me wasn't worth using for a doorstop, much less what i bought it for". I advised him if he wanted to avoid a judgement against him (which would also go on his credit report) to transmit a cashier's check by Friday for the $3000 + attorney's fees and that would get him 3 things: 1) the product he had shipped me would be returned, 2) my motion with the court to dismiss and 3rd) my silence on what he'd done. The check arrived 3 days later.

the sad part was, this was a young kid i had spent $17,000 to $30,000 a month with for over 18 months (he was a supplier) and he had bragged i was his best customer

back to point - knowing you can file suit locally is a big advantage - if you find yourself in that situation, when you talk to your atty, tell him to research the above and he should be able to find it.

had the seller not reconciled with me to settle prior to the actual court hearing, assuming i would have won (and i would have) the next step, here in VA (each state has it's own parameters) would have been for the judgement the court would have given me, to "age" for 30 days. Then i would have had to pay $15 to the Secretary of the Commonwealth of VA for svc to the defendant in his/her home state under the "long arm of the law" statute (most states have reciprocity agreements to honor each other's judgements and allowance is given for additional atty's incurred in the collection, ie garnishment of the seller's wages, property etc

but your atty can go over the details with you

fwiw

[RC2]

Thank you larry. Rich

[springer]

Great info but what is the federal statute you mentioned - do you have the US code number?

[CharlieMae]

Springer, I too want to know the statute. I have never heard of such a thing and most Judges I have faced would have kicked the case to Georgia for the hearing.

[springer]

Originally Posted by CharlieMae

Springer, I too want to know the statute. I have never heard of such a thing and most Judges I have faced would have kicked the case to Georgia for the hearing.

I'm not sure if larryccf is referring to case law or a federal statute. The attorney he is referencing might be referring to long-arm statutes, which all states have. I reference the Texas Long-Arm statute here:

Texas Long-Arm Statute
Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code § 17.042. Acts Constituting Business in This State
In addition to other acts that may constitute doing business, a nonresident does business in this
state if the nonresident:

(1) contracts by mail or otherwise with a Texas resident and either party is to perform the contract in whole or in part in this state;
(2) commits a tort in whole or in part in this state; or
(3) recruits Texas residents, directly or through an intermediary located in this state, for employment inside or outside this state.

[CaveDiver]

Could it be that he is referring to Calder v. Jones, 465 U.S. 783 (1984). Also check personal jurisdiction.

[Frogman4me]

Thanks Larry for posting!

[azguy]

Thanks Larry, very informative....

[TimeToGo]

Thanks for the info!!!

[DCgator]

Very informative. Thanks!

[larryccf]

Originally Posted by springer

Great info but what is the federal statute you mentioned - do you have the US code number?

sorry - been away from the forums for a bit - medical issues keep flairing up (getting old ain't for pussies)

Springer - the actual statute code i can't give you, as the atty that represented me retired about 5 years ago. But it didn't take him long to find it - i remember telling him about it in the morning and by lunch i'd heard back from him that he'd found it.

The long arm statute, which most states have, would have been used to collect the judgement but the long arm statute is not the statute this issue was covered under. It's similiar to the logic of vendors not collecting sales tax on sales to out-of-state purchasers, as the purchase is considered to have taken place in the jurisdiction of the purchaser, if that helps any