A Legal Victory…
Yesterday, I settled the lawsuit I filed with Campbell’s Business Telephone Exchange and immediately collected the settlement in cash from the defendant. Yet, I’m still frustrated and don’t have a feeling of satisfaction that I’d expect.
The most annoying part was that the Santa Clara County Superior Court judge wouldn’t listen to a word I had to say (I couldn’t even verbally present the evidence of the case, and was merely restricted to handing over the documents to the bailiff and citing the legal code section of the main complaint) while the defendant attempted to rake me over the coals, calling me a liar and other names and he hoped that my “karma would bite me in the ášš!” The judge simultaneously allowed this abusive tirade and kept my mouth zippered by direct order. Tough to listen to some angry loser lambaste me and not be able to defend myself!
All this after the defendant had agreed to settle, and then changed his mind a half an hour later when court was back in session. That really pìššëd off the judge and she was very unhappy with him! What supposedly set off the defendant was that I had told him that the lawsuit was not about the money, rather it was about the principle of the whole thing. Even though the judge stated to the defendant that most plaintiffs say the same thing, the defendant was not placated. It was then that he stated that he changed his mind about the settlement and would prefer to receive the judgment against his company as he had no intention whatsoever of ever paying it. I tried to let the judge know that I would accept the full judgment in lieu of the settlement, but she wouldn’t even let me get the second word out.
What the defendant did not understand (and apparently wholeheartedly disbelieved) is that I was not trying to screw him over; I merely filed the lawsuit to stop one more company (by his own admission) from continuing to spam 40,000 people in the Bay Area with junk faxes. He did break the law, after all, so he’s really got nothing to whine about other than that he was caught! If my intent was to really screw him to the wall and to simply go after him for monetary reasons, I had additional legal aces up my sleeve if ever they were required. I sued him for only one of the violations of his illegal junk faxing — the fact that I received a fax at all. If he had chosen the judgment route and then been an ášš about the whole thing, I could have separately sued him (and still can even though I won’t) for violating two more code sections with the same junk fax: not having the federally required legal header information, and not having included an opt-out toll-free telephone number per California law. He thought I could do nothing about collecting the judgment if he refused to pay, but it might have even been possible to have his corporate status revoked and a lien put on his home.
It appeared to have pained him more to relinquish the small cash settlement that it would have to have secured a judgment against him. For that reason, and the resulting likelihood that he will never resort to junk faxing again, I’m glad I took the easier way out. While I could have easily collected a judgment for $3000, half from each violation, I was more interested in presenting the message that junk faxing is bad. I think he learned his lesson.
Still, it was frustrating to be called a liar and then having to leave the courtroom with that baseless charge unanswered. I think the judge’s mind was more on the preparations being made for the 500-million-dollar case against National Semiconductor that directly followed ours (and its 58 boxes of paper evidence that were wheeled in during our minor case!) and she just wanted us gone from her court.
A bittersweet victory, indeed…
