Journal tomhudson's Journal: Stupid Landlord Trix - Another day, another date set ... 11
But first - HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY TO THE LAWSUITS!
Add all the preliminary problems, and it's well over 3 years, but that's another story (which I can't wait to tell the judge again in this "do-over").
Yes, folks, today was another court hearing. Normally these cases take, on average, 1/2 an hour per hearing. Some take less (people don't show so there's a default judgment, or the facts are clear and the case is quickly disposed of. The judge looked at the file (already more than half a foot thick), and knew he wasn't going to be able to squeeze more than 2-3 hours for it, even if he were able to get some of the other judges to take some of his cases.
So, he got on the phone with us present, and blocked out a full 8-hour hearing date in September.
Q: Will 8 hours be enough?
A: His side will be very short, because there's not much to it. I withheld several months rent after we sued each other, we went to court, and the judge refused to order me to pay it - and ordered that both suits be merged so that a hearing could be held on all claims at once.
He's going to try to blame me for the structural faults and damages of the house. It didn't work last time (municipal inspector cleared that up) - but there's more - thanks to all the delays, and the house being foreclosed on, I found out that the damage was mentioned in the deed when he bought the place. It's still listed as having a defective foundation with water entry in the REO (Bank Real Estate Owned) listing. So now I have proof that
- he knew about the problems when he bought the place
- it's obvious I didn't cause them
- he perjured himself when he said there were no problems, from when I moved in up to and including the first trial.
He wants to delay the inevitable as much as possible, but the longer he delays, the more information I get against him.
On my side are my claims, and I have over 100 pages of NEW evidence to produce and get entered into the file, as well as covering the stuff already in there. 8 hours is going to be tight.
Q: Are you disappointed about the delay?
A: I'm not looking forward to lugging 2 copies of all the evidence along with my laptop to court yet One More Time, that's for sure! (I really *HEART* my pull-along). I was really ready for it today. I know my arguments, I've got lots of proof, and he's got nothing. But there's an upside. July 1st is Moving Day in Quebec (I know, "What do you mean, you have an official "moving day"? Yes, we do, and it's a zoo!).
So, if we had gone ahead today, we would have gotten a judgment in June, he would have 30 days to appeal, so he runs the clock out and moves July 1st - have fun tracking him down to collect. Now, I'm going to make a point of getting his current address in September - just to make sure that if he's moved, I can still go after him.
Q: Any other "good things" about the delay?
"Time wounds all fools." Who knows what else will come out of the woodwork to bite him? I know he wanted a delay - he had a phony excuse all cooked up, and that if it's delayed, how "Not in July or August, kids, vacation, yak yak yak". His kid isn't old enough to go to school yet. What an asshole - hiding behind a toddler.
Doesn't matter - the judge figured that there wouldn't be any full 1-day blocks available for the next year, and I was adamant about getting this done ASAP - so he got on the phone, and that "a year" became 4 months. Not bad when you consider that July and August are their busiest time of the year.
Also, because I'm finding proof that he knowingly illegally renovated it, that he knew it was defective when he bought it, and that it wasn't supposed to be lived in until it was brought up to code (hello, fraudulent misrepresentation) even bankruptcy won't wipe out any judgment.
So, the inevitable is delayed by another 4 months, but I now have 4 more months to put things into order, and find other tidbits of info.
Q: Like what?
A: Like a lawsuit by the next person unlucky enough to rent the place (there have been 3 more lawsuits over this disaster), where the judgment states that they complained about the roof leaking into several rooms, and his wife admitting that it hadn't been fixed until that December. How does that help? Simple - I have a copy of the order from the city the previous May stating that he had 10 days to fix it permanently - he obviously didn't comply with the order, and his claims in court that he had fixed it were yet another lie.
He still believes that I don't have a copy of the city order (He thinks it's "confidential information" - I made an Access to Information request, and they gave it to me, just with his name blackened out - but with the address of the affected building clearly showing.)
Next step - I'm going to put everything into tabbed binders, along with an index to make it really easy for the judge to follow. Hope they like the mouse-in-the-house videos
LULZ (Score:2)
Keep up the great work. I always look forward to your posts about the guy.
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It'll all be on the web when the time comes - but I don't want to give him too much information at this point, for obvious reasons. It really is a soap opera.
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I too look forward to the posts about this guy. Hopefully this will be the last time, since he's officially perjured himself, etc.
PS: Thanks to you and Shadow Wrought for the info on the binders below. Good info. (although, I wouldn't string the judge along, I would give him the info directly, or at least have the second binder prepared so if he asks for it all at once you don't have to fumble)
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Giving it to the judge in advance would be considered an "ex parte communication" - a BIG no-no. It has to be produced at trial, and the other side gets to see it and object to it.
Sure, both sides have the opportunity to do discovery, but that's between the parties; they also have the original complaint, which should be detailed enoug
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or whatever they call it in Canada...
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I'd make a lousy D.A. But I really enjoyed jury duty. Maybe "professional juror?"
Tabbed Binders? With an Index? (Score:2)
I'm guessing you were going to do something along these lines anyways, so this is more for anyone else around here who swings by, but I have been putting together Exhibit Notebooks (I don't know why they call them notebooks instead of bidners, but they do) for the last decade. I'm only US though, so I don't know of any Canadian nuances. But, generally speaking:
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Up here they still do it in the old-fashioned "stuff it all in a folder along with a bunch of post-its and notes."
That's why, when an engineer friend of mine had a case that had been dragging along for a decade, his lawyer was really impressed with his file system - every folder or booklet had a tam, and every tab was indexed with a description of the content. Any time a question came up, out came the folder with the answer.
Well (Score:2)
Well, it's no APK (Alex P. Keaton??) but it's not a bad substitute.