Junk Truck

追加: 2026-05-22

[00:00:01]This is the plaint of Christopher Walker. He says he's a truck driver and made a verbal agreement with the defendant, his former boss, to buy one of his trucks. Everything was fine until the guy went all Mel Gibson on him and launched into a verbal assault, calling him all sorts of personal names. Bottom line, the truck turned out to have 800,000 m on it, wouldn't pass inspection, and he wants his down payment back pronto. He's suing for $3,000 is due.

[00:00:35]This is the defendant, Douglas Bear. He says that guy gave him the first payment and then never paid him a penny more. He always had some sort of excuse for not paying the thing off month by month as they agreed. Now, 10 months later, he decides to change his mind and demands his money back. He doesn't think so.

[00:00:53]He's accused of trying to unload a junky truck.

[00:01:01]>> The defendant has filed a counter suit for $3,000. The balance he's owed on the truck.

[00:01:08]>> Thank you, Douglas. Okay. Christopher Walker. Yes, ma'am.

[00:01:10]>> You are suing Douglas Bear for $3,000.

[00:01:14]You say you're act out actually more than that, but that's the statutory max in Ohio.

[00:01:20]the a deposit that you put on a tractor that you no longer wish to go through with the sale on plus storage for that tractor. You have a counter claim against him for $3,000 uh for the money that he owes you to finish buying this tractor. And of course, you say you're out actually more than that as well. Mr. Walker, let's start with you. What happened here? Um, well, first, your honor, I'd like to say that um I'm a 17-year veteran of the trucking industry. Um, >> a veteran of the trucking industry.

[00:01:52]>> Of the Okay.

[00:01:53]>> And I am a veteran.

[00:01:54]>> Okay.

[00:01:56]>> Um, but, uh, and in the totality of my driving experience and career, I've surpassed the 1 million mile benchmark.

[00:02:04]Um, >> is this like up in the air in George Clooney where there's like, you know, if you fly a number of miles, all of a sudden there's this big like somebody comes out of somewhere and >> Well, that >> not so much in the trucking industry.

[00:02:15]>> Not so much. It's uh it's just something that uh over the years that's a lot of miles.

[00:02:18]>> That's a lot of miles. A lot of miles that >> um and I'm I'm currently employed as an over the road truck driver and uh which requires me to traverse the United States every 7 to 10 days. Um let's see. Um Doug I I worked for him for about 4 months 5 years ago. So he bought two tractors. When I when I say tractors, some people don't understand.

[00:02:45]>> No, I think that's great.

[00:02:47]>> Some people >> give me the prop. I want the prop.

[00:02:49]>> Some people think when I say tractor, they're thinking in the bean >> farming industry. But you're talking Oh, look at it. It has eyes and everything.

[00:02:56]It's like what? It's tater or what?

[00:02:59]What's the from uh >> Okay, >> there you go. So that is that is the tractor portion of the tractor trailer.

[00:03:06]>> Okay. And then whatever it is you're hauling goes on this part here.

[00:03:09]>> Correct.

[00:03:09]>> Okay. So you two have apparently stayed in touch and at some point you find out that he wants to sell a tractor. And that one had how many miles on it?

[00:03:17]>> 800,000 miles.

[00:03:18]>> Okay. Now to the average Joe when they hear that something has 800,000 miles, they figure that it has to be put to pasture for good, not for visibility to sell it. So how long do these tractors go for? How many miles?

[00:03:30]>> Up to a million and a half miles. A million and a half for real?

[00:03:33]>> Yeah.

[00:03:33]>> Wow.

[00:03:34]>> Yeah.

[00:03:34]>> Jeez.

[00:03:35]>> A lot.

[00:03:35]>> Wow. Okay.

[00:03:36]>> And um so he calls me in October of last year and says, "Hey, uh you know, I want to get rid of this tractor. We agreed to purchase the vehicle or, you know, make a verbal agreement.

[00:03:48]>> You were going to buy it from him."

[00:03:50]>> Doug and I, >> you were going to buy it from him, >> right? For $9,000.

[00:03:53]>> For $9,000.

[00:03:54]>> For $9,000. And I said, "Okay." And as I'm going across the United States, um, I don't have time to look at it. Doug knows the rules and regulations. He's saying that the tractor is in turnkey DOT ready condition so that when I uh, finish making the last payment that I can go on and do what I need to do.

[00:04:14]>> So, you made a payment of how much?

[00:04:16]>> Of $2,800.

[00:04:18]The way a comp check works in the trucking industry is the way that >> I don't think he's disputing that he received $2,800 from you, right? Okay.

[00:04:24]Well, he he had told me at first that he didn't get any money from me.

[00:04:27]>> Okay.

[00:04:28]>> And that I had >> What do you mean at first?

[00:04:30]>> When when this all came to bear that when I looked at the truck and I said, you know, Doug, this isn't the condition the truck was to be in.

[00:04:37]>> Okay. Let's let's stop a second because you're confusing me. You buy the truck on November 9 in November of09.

[00:04:43]>> Correct.

[00:04:44]>> Okay. And then you pay storage to Doug for the truck that you've purchased sight unseen that you haven't finished paying for.

[00:04:51]>> Correct. Doug takes money out of my savings account. $127 for storage from November until August.

[00:04:59]>> Correct.

[00:04:59]>> You don't get around to taking a look at the thing you put a $2,800 deposit on until August.

[00:05:05]>> Correct.

[00:05:05]>> Why?

[00:05:07]>> Where do you live?

[00:05:08]>> In Columbus, Ohio.

[00:05:09]>> Okay. Where's the truck?

[00:05:11]>> Uh on the west side of Columbus, Ohio.

[00:05:13]>> OKAY. YOU'RE TRAVELING EVERY 7 TO 10 DAYS the expanse of the nation. But you don't have time in 10 months to go over and SEE THE TRUCK THAT'S on the west side of town.

[00:05:25]>> I know that sounds a little for Yeah, it it does. But your honor, when I try when I come through Columbus, it could be at 2 in the morning.

[00:05:33]>> By the way, you're supposed to be paying $100 a month, right?

[00:05:36]>> 10% >> of my net pay of my net pay >> because I put Doug I put Doug on my savings account.

[00:05:43]>> WHAT? WHAT? WHY would you put Doug on your savings account? Because Doug and I had that relationship OF >> I DOUG AND I HAVE A RELATIONSHIP TOO, BUT YOU DON'T SEE ME PUTTING HIM ON MY ACCOUNT. WERE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE paying off the truck, the 9,000 bucks a little by little each month?

[00:06:00]>> Every week, 10% of my check.

[00:06:01]>> You pay But were you paying that?

[00:06:03]>> I was at the time there was $3,89563 in the account >> that he had access to.

[00:06:11]>> To my question, were you know what? I'm done. I'll go back to you. What's going on? What was the agreement you guys had?

[00:06:17]>> We agree on $9,000 purchase price. What I also said was that, okay, $3,000 down, a,000 a month, and then May, April, May, you'll have the key and the title, and you can have the truck. He said, sounds good to me. I can pay it. Okay.

[00:06:34]>> Driving somebody else's truck, >> correct? I I work for another. He doesn't pay me anything. All >> was the premise that you wanted to start your own company.

[00:06:44]>> Yes, ma'am. And I had already started my escorp with the understanding that when I made the last payment >> that you'd get now, but what I don't understand is if he puts down a down payment of $2,800 in November, doesn't December and January roll around and isn't he supposed to be paying another,000 bucks?

[00:06:58]>> Right.

[00:06:58]>> Did he pay it?

[00:06:59]>> No.

[00:07:00]>> No. Right. Are you saying you paid it?

[00:07:02]Yes.

[00:07:03]>> I have >> I DON'T WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY was in your account. You keep saying that like it's an answer. It's not an answer.

[00:07:07]Did you pay him $1,000 each month?

[00:07:10]>> Yes, because he was on the account. He could have taken that money out at any given time.

[00:07:17]>> What planet are you on?

[00:07:18]>> But I put him in my account, judge, so he could have taken my money so that I'd have no money to eat with. Okay, I got Why are you on the guy's account?

[00:07:26]>> He's telling me that his credit card is maxed. And I told him, I said, "If you want to make, you know, lot payments, I've got the lot receipts." I said, you know, you need >> What are lot payments? The storage payments.

[00:07:36]>> Storage payments. if you want to use your credit card. I said, I'll give you, you know, the whole information and you just, you know, you just call him once a month and give them your credit card number because I'd rather not do that.

[00:07:46]And I said, why? He goes, because I'm trying to pay it off. My credit is crappy. And I said, what do you want me to do? He says, well, I'll give you access to my savings account and you can go make the payments. And I did every month, >> the lot payments, but what about the $1,000 a month payment?

[00:08:00]>> He wasn't giving me anything.

[00:08:01]>> So, what do you think really happened in August? By August, what happens?

[00:08:04]>> He comes and looks at the truck with me.

[00:08:06]Then he sits there and he says, "Let's go get the title notorized." And I had it filled out with his name on it, getting ready to go notorize it. But I said, "I need a check. I'm not going to pull your money out of your account because you can dispute that you gave me permission at any time. Give me another com check and we're done."

[00:08:22]>> Not really if he put you as a signer.

[00:08:24]But but you don't want to do it that way. You want to get paid.

[00:08:26]>> Yeah. Well, look what I'm doing here.

[00:08:28]You see, I'm here again. Now I'm in trouble because I did a verbal agreement. So I thought I'm not doing that.

[00:08:33]>> You're not in trouble. You're getting sued. There's a difference.

[00:08:37]To me, that's trouble.

[00:08:39]He says, you know, da da da da. I said, give me a com check for give me $3,000.

[00:08:44]Give me something. And he's like, well, I'd rather not because it'll put me down to nothing. And the minute he went to his employer and found out that the single axle won't do what a double axle was, and they won't guarantee him, you know, a route. He's like, I can't take it. And here's what he said to me, your honor. He goes, I'm very sorry. I messed up. I made a stupid mistake. He said, "You can keep the down payment for all your trouble going there twice a week and or twice a month checking on it and not being able to sell the truck and being 10 months later and you know as soon as it's depreciating.

[00:09:17]>> If anything sits there with snow and ice and water on it for all those months and never gets driven, yes, it's going to rust on the frame and yes, it's going to have the batteries are low and I told him I'd spend a whole day charging the batteries all day long to get it up and running." How do you complain to me that it's not in the shape it was when you bought it when you don't know what shape it was in when you bought it because you didn't BOTHER TO GO LOOK AT IT when you bought it? Really, you're just not paying on the truck and then changed your mind when it depreciated 10 months later. How do you figure he's got to pay you back all that money >> because >> AND NOW YOU'VE GOT A COUNTER CLAIM against him for $3,000 because you want to force him to go through with the tractor sale.

[00:09:53]>> Yeah. And I'm willing to sign it over to him for $3,200 less than what the original agreed price was. If he gets another 3,000, he has 5,800 in it. He has a truck to trade in to get a double axle he wants to get for his job.

[00:10:04]>> Your honor, it's not even what? What?

[00:10:07]IT'S NOT >> IT'S NOT IN WHAT? IN THE SAME condition as what?

[00:10:09]>> It's not even close to being in a DOT condition. He >> No, no, no. IT'S NOT I DON'T CARE IF IT'S close to being a DOT condition.

[00:10:15]That doesn't matter to me. That matters to you. What I need to know is that it's in the condition that it was in when you >> look at the You can look at the pictures.

[00:10:22]>> Why isn't it exactly how he's painting it, which is you had money then and high hopes and then it changed around? Would you ever buy a vehicle on layaway?

[00:10:32]>> No, personally I would not, but every situation is different. I never would use a same day pay loan. A lot of people do. So, >> okay. But my my my my point is it's like it starts depreciating over time, right?

[00:10:43]So, by the time you get it, you already lost money.

[00:10:46]>> Yeah, you have. And it's just like you don't know what you're going to get. So, >> well, you kind of do know what you're going to get because you can inspect it, but it's sitting there. And yeah, you're right. I mean, who knows what they're doing with it.

[00:10:55]>> Yeah, who knows? I mean, why would you ever want to do that? It's taking a big risk.

[00:10:58]>> It's taking a risk. You may want to do it financially, but it's very, very risky going inside the courtroom.

[00:11:03]>> There's a venue. There's a venue for that trailer. So, it's not that I couldn't have utilized that truck. It's the fact that when he presented it to me, he's like, there's no problems with it there. There's no way that that truck would come close to >> What's your response to the things?

[00:11:16]>> Can I see the truck? Because I'm not even sure he's got my truck that he's got pictures of.

[00:11:21]>> Your honor, I had good faith in him.

[00:11:22]>> This is not even my truck, your honor.

[00:11:25]>> Okay. We have We have a You have You have a decision to make. At the risk of sounding like Monty Hall, let me explain to you. You have a counter claim against him for $3,000.

[00:11:36]Okay? On his claim against you, I'm about to rule in your favor. All right?

[00:11:40]Because I think he had a binding contract and I think he bailed out of the contract. And the only way he can prove that it's not his fault he had the bre that you breached a contract is by proving to me that the condition is different today than it was when he bought it, which he can't do because he never bothered to look at it when he bought it. Okay? So, that's a problem.

[00:11:57]All right. For him. Now, you've got a lawsuit against him for $3,000 because you want him to finish buying this tractor, right? But you have another option that you might want to consider because if I rule in your favor on the deposit, that's just your liquidated damages. You get to keep that. Then you can sell this tractor to somebody else. You can take that that deposit as liquidated damages and just move on and sell the truck. Otherwise, then I'm going to order him to pay you the other 3,000 and then he's got to get the truck off of there. But then we have a bunch of added potential future lawsuits where if he doesn't come pick up the truck then you know you've got the truck ON A CERTAIN SPOT and it it's unclear whether you are able to do what you want. You know this is becomes a little bit hairy.

[00:12:44]>> I'll drop the counters then if it's going to be a problem. Yes.

[00:12:47]>> Well I just I sort of I I think it may be in your best interest to to to drop it because then you've got a clean title without a problem and then you can just move on from there and sell the darn thing on your own.

[00:12:58]>> Okay. I'm going to donate the truck your own. There you go. Mr. Walker, I find that you have not proven your case and I find in favor of the defendant in your case against him and on the counter claim the defendant is voluntarily withdrawing it. That is my verdict.

[00:13:15]>> Well, here comes the plane. If the trucker coming out into the hallway here on the losing end of this case, what what's your reaction to this outcome?

[00:13:20]>> She heard the case. I tried to put her resent what I had to do and she made a ruling.

[00:13:25]>> That's how it goes. Someone wins and someone loses. But um how bad did this dispute get between you and your old buddy here?

[00:13:32]>> It it's not really that he's my friend.

[00:13:34]He's always been my friend and we will >> He's still your friend.

[00:13:38]>> Yeah. And we'll move on from this.

[00:13:40]>> Uhhuh. How can you even stay awake?

[00:13:41]You're driving across the country that often.

[00:13:43]>> That's Yeah. That's what we do. That's what we do for There's no chickens behind the store, so somebody's got to bring those eggs. That's what we do.

[00:13:50]>> All right. Head head right down this way. All right.

[00:13:52]>> It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it. So step in here. What's your What's your reaction to this outcome here? Well, I think the judgment was fair. I, you know, she sold through the whole story and, you know, he he made a commitment. He didn't follow through and then, you know, he wanted it out.

[00:14:08]>> Yeah. Well, he says, uh, he's going to kind of let bygones be bygon. Seems like.

[00:14:12]>> Sure.

[00:14:12]>> Same with you.

[00:14:13]>> Yeah, sure. Why not?

[00:14:14]>> Over to Harvey.

[00:14:15]>> Okay, Kurt. If you have to buy on layaway, fair enough if you buy a vehicle, but build depreciation into the purchase price, meaning get some kind of a discount knowing that when you finally get the vehicle, it's going to probably be worth a little bit less. And that will do it for this case litigance for the next case on the way into the courtroom right now.