Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York

Small Claims Did Not Recover My Money

Hello, I have a dispute with the owner of a dive shop. He said if I paid in cash he would waive the sales tax and offer me a 10% discount, so I did for a total of $2,096. Unfortunately, some of the items did not fit and others did not work. However, when I tried to return the items he would not refund my money. I took him to small claims court. He said the items were used and showed ''proof'' by showing one of the items, a dive logged in the dive computer. The computer had not worked when I tried it, which is why I did not use it and returned it. I even pointed out that if I had indeed used it as he claimed, why was there only 1 dive logged in the computer? I had gone on holiday and dived up to 5 dives for an entire week! Meanwhile, the owner travels with classes to teach diving and had just returned from Florida. I pointed out that the owner has had all the equipment for almost 2 months and if he got it to work could easily have used the computer once to log a dive and make it seem ''used.'' Unfortunately, the arbitrator judged in his favor. So now I do not have the equipment or my money. What can I do? Can I file another claim in small claims court? I look forward to your replies, thank you.


Asked on 1/17/09, 12:56 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Jason Kessler Law Offices of Jason B. Kessler, P.C.

Re: Small Claims Did Not Recover My Money

Nothing. You went to binding arbitration instead of a judge. You cannot appeal the decision. Next time you need to go to small claims court ask to have your case heard by the judge.

The court should've explained this to you. If not, I would make a complaint to the supervising judge.

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Answered on 1/17/09, 1:02 am


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