She called the police.
You took that property and made it look like yours.
She said that she would sell it to me.
There's no agreement.
I wouldn't have done none of this if she would've told me no.
She let you park there for four years.
We never had a problem.
You never had a problem 'cause she was a good neighbor.
[narrator] This is Judy Justice.
[theme music]
[narrator] Julian Hall is suing his neighbor, Staci Benedum,
for breach of contract and attorney fees.
[bailiff] Court, come to order. All rise.
Have a seat, please.
Case #2128, Hall versus Benedum.
- Thank you. - You're welcome.
Mr. Hall, you and the Defendant are neighbors?
Yes ma'am.
And your houses are right next to each other?
Hers is on the corner of mine is...
- Right next to her? - Right next to hers.
[Judy] Got it. What your complaint is,
that I see where those two
- the truck and vehicle behind it. - [Julian] The trailer, yes, ma'am.
The trailer. The property to the left of that is your house?
- [Julian] Yes ma'am. - And the property to the right of that
- is the Defendant's house? - Yes, ma'am.
And it is your claim that the Defendant,
in writing, agreed to sell you that little piece of property
that looks like it's been carved out of her property?
- [Julian] Yes ma'am. - 'Cause you had a narrow driveway,
- you wanted to park these two vehicles. - Yes, ma'am.
Based upon that agreement, you went ahead
and did some work on that piece of property.
- Yes ma'am. - [Judy] You put down gravel,
you planted flowers, all to make it
look as if that piece of property was part of your house.
Not so much to make it look like it's part of my house,
so I can get in it. 'Cause the agreement was that
there was three pine trees there
prior to her telling me that I could buy the property.
[Judy] No, no, no.
The three trees that are there had nothing to do with this except
that they were taken down. And were they taken down
and the removal of the trees was paid for by you or by her?
- By both of us. - [Judy] By both. Okay.
So, you asked to have the trees removed
and you both paid to have the trees removed.
- Okay. - Not only did you cut the trees down,
but you took that property and made it look like yours.
You say that there was an agreement in writing for her to sell you
that piece of property.
So, I'd like to see that agreement.
Yes, ma'am.
There's no agreement in writ...
Don't say anything.
- [Julian] The very top line. - Just a second.
This is not a contract, sir, to sell land.
- I have a lot more. - [Judy] Shh!
Not a contract to sell land.
I see what she says to you, "I am agreeing to sell you
the property you are currently parked on for $1,000 plus costs.
Let's get this in motion ASAP."
And then she doesn't hear from you, and that's the 18th of May.
And then she writes you again
a little bit later, and she says her offer "will expire
at the end of today's business day, 5/19."
And on 5/19 at 10 o'clock at night you write to her,
"Hey Staci, I've started working on things this morning.
I have already been to the city of Akron
and once they are done, and I get a surveyor
and so on, I will keep you updated if that's okay.
Last everything is time sensitive and I'm working as fast as I can
to get the approvals, just now seeing your texts."
- Right. - [Judy] Okay.
So, that's what you're relying on as a contract to purchase property.
Well, the fact that she said that she would sell it to me
and I started all the motion like she said to do.
I started all the motions, got the surveyor done, got the fees done,
- I got everything done. - [Judy] All right.
That was 5/19/2021?
- Mm-hmm. - So, show me what you did
based on this and what you spent based on your belief
that she had agreed to sell you the property
and you had an agreement for sale
which is like a contract to sell a property.
Most people know that when you sell a piece of property,
you get a survey, you put it in the contract,
you have a contract when the property is going to be transferred,
that property would have to be surveyed, because clearly
you're carving a piece of property out of her property.
- Mm-hmm. - [Judy] I wanna see what you did,
and what you spent. Because if you spent money
based on this, I may consider that as part of your lawsuit
because then it turned out she didn't want to sell you the property.
By the way, I wouldn't sell him the property either.
- It makes your property look ridiculous. - [Staci] It does.
[laughs]
- We never agreed to sell the property. - [Judy] Just a...
- Okay. - [Judy] Did you write, "I am agreeing
to sell you the property you are currently parked on
- for $1,000 plus costs"? - Yes. I never agreed to sell the property
until I told him he was no longer allowed to park there. It was never discussed.
- What is this? - Depending on the stipulation,
that my mortgage company requires, which is an appraisal.
They had to approve the selling of the property.
All I'm interested in is this one line.
- Mm-hmm. - The other "ifs" fall after that.
It says, "I'm agreeing to sell you the property you are currently parked on
- for $1,000 plus costs." - [Staci] Yes.
[Judy] Okay. So, you did that.
- Yes. - [Judy] I want to see the things
that you started to do right after May 19th.
You said, "I've already started working on things
this morning." This is May 19th. "I've already been to the city of Akron."
[Julian] Yes.
This is a receipt showing the $800 from the surveyor.
- [Judy] Okay, may I see that please? - There is that one.
This is a receipt from the attorney where I had the deed paperwork done.
I'm looking for a date on this, sir.
- I'm looking for dates on these. - Look at this one, too.
Okay. June 15th, what is this?
That's actually when I paid to have the three deeds made up.
That's the $450 that I had to pay to the attorney
for him to make the three deeds up.
The only thing Staci had to do was sign them.
And that was June 15th.
- That was not quite a month later. - [Julian] Right.
- I started the next day. - [Judy] Okay. This is so far
what you spent in reliance on her statement
that I'll sell you the property for $1,000.
This is a breakdown that I have that I wrote down,
you can show her that.
- Everything, the timeline. - I don't need a breakdown of a timeline,
sir, I need the bills for this.
- Not what you wrote. - Okay.
I need the bills for six tons of gravel. That was in July.
[Julian] Here's more receipts right here. Here you go.
Did he ever give you $1,000?
He never paid me.
I'm a common sense person, and a property owner.
It was overreaching to think
that you could buy a piece of that land for $1,000.
Overreaching.
[theme music]
[narrator] Julian Hall claims his neighbor,
Staci Benedum, owes for building costs and attorney fees.
Staci is countersuing, claiming Julian was illegally parking on her property.
Okay, so far all I have that you paid
was $450 for the deeds, $800 for the survey and gravel to be delivered.
I got the gravel in there. I also have the concrete that I had laid
flowers and stuff that I put in.
Did he pay part of having the tree stumps removed?
We split the cost and the labor of removing the debris of the trees.
- No ma'am. That's not true. - [Judy] Who wanted the trees removed?
I never had a problem with the trees.
- I liked the trees. - Don't speak.
He wanted the trees cut down so he could have more space.
He was already parking underneath the trees with a smaller trailer.
Just not his truck. He wanted more space. So, he came to me and said, "Hey,
what if I split the cost of the cutting of the trees?"
I said, That's fine, I'll split the cost. That's fine with me.
And then I agreed to let him continue
to park there as long as there was no tire marks.
That's what it was. And then he built this thing.
Well, he formalized parking there.
- Mm-hmm. - At what point did Ms. Benedum
tell you that she was not going to sell you the property?
This actually started on 4... 4/3 of '18.
I'm not interested.
I'm interested in the beginning of these texts.
- Okay. - Where you clearly had discussions,
trees were removed.
I don't quite understand why she allowed you to remove the trees
and I don't understand the whole transaction.
- 'Cause it wasn't my choice. - Just a second. It was your choice.
You wanted to park there. That's what you wanted.
- But the trees was dying. - Just a sec. I don't care
if they were dying. I don't care if they were shriveled up.
I don't care. You carved out a piece of property
Now, if you carved out a piece of property that belongs to her,
and you didn't have an appropriate agreement in writing, which it has to be,
then I believe, based upon her statement
that you acted on, you're entitled to whatever you spent
to renovate that property. Do you understand?
- You're not entitled to the property. - No, I under--
You're not entitled to the property. You're entitled to what you spent
to renovate the property. So, now I want you to tell me
on what date did she tell you
that she was not going to sell you the property?
That was 7/20 of '21,
after I got everything done and called her,
I asked her, could she meet me at the bank.
She said, "No, I'm not selling to you for $1,000."
But it goes deeper that, that's what I'm trying to explain to you.
It goes deeper than that because when it came to the trees,
I didn't approach her with the trees.
She came to me, said, "Since the tree is dying."
I said, "Well, I'll go in half with you."
At that point. I said, "When can I use the property?"
She said, "You can use it as long as you need it. So that's when I started
investing all this money into the property...
[Judy] So what, I don't care.
She said to you, you could use it as long as you want.
- Yes ma'am. - Okay.
- I said nothing permanent. - She said as long as I need it.
That's why I invested the gravel...
[Judy] What I'm telling you, sir, is the purchase and sale
of property has to be with a certain formality.
If you dealt with an attorney, the attorney would tell you
that it had to be in formality. Signed by her, signed by you,
the contract that provided for sale when it took place,
what the survey was, whether her bank would agree to let her
sell off a piece of the property 'cause you have a mortgage.
All of those things. That's why agreements to sell real property, which is land,
have to be in accordance with certain set of rules.
This doesn't make it.
However, if you relied on her statement
in order to improve the property
to make it comfortable for you based upon her text message,
I believe that you are entitled, based upon the text message,
to what you spent to improve it.
But you have to understand, she's not gonna let you park there anymore.
- And I'm okay with that. - [Judy] Just a second.
- Are you still parking there? - [Julian] No, ma'am.
- [Judy] Since when? - I would say September of 2022.
So you were parked there,
in July of '21, August of '21, September of '21
October of '21, November of '21, December of '21, January of '22
all the way up to September, you were parking there.
This is because we had--
Don't give me a "because," that's either a yes or a no.
I was parked there, but we also had a civil case too.
- Which he dismissed two days before. - We had a civil case.
[Julian] She called the police, the police...
He called the the police on me twice.
The question was, when did she tell you she wasn't gonna sell you the property?
September, when she agreed not to meet me at the bank.
That's when she told me she wasn't gonna sell.
- September of 2022? - Yes ma'am.
I never knew we were meeting at a bank.
- [Judy] Just a second. - Okay.
- I can do better than that. - [Judy] In September
of 2022, she advised you...
No. I'm sorry, it was August of 2021.
Well, show me in August of 2021 that you told him
you weren't selling him the property.
- Here's... - [Judy] Okay, I'll take both.
Kevin.
Thank you.
- And this was after she agreed... - [Judy] Ssh!
Okay.
I'm just looking for the date on this.
Yeah, there's not a date on there. I'm sorry.
But that was after May 18th of 2021.
That was maybe July or August of 2021 when I told him,
since he didn't meet all the requirements that I no longer wanna...
- What requirements? - [Staci] He never met
the requirements of paying me the money or getting the land appraised.
The only thing he didn't do, that my mortgage required is the appraisal.
[Julian] That wasn't true, because I did everything
that the city of Akron told me to do, who deal with this on a regular...
- Ssh! Did you get an appraisal? - I got the land surveyed.
She didn't say nothing about appraisal until after I got everything done.
That's why you have a contract in writing for the sale of property, sir.
I don't think you did anything intentionally wrong.
But there was an appraisal that was necessary. Clearly if she has a mortgage,
and a bank is giving her a certain amount of money
on a parcel of property, and she wants to sell off
a piece of that property, the bank is going to
wanna know how much that the value of the property
has diminished by her selling it to you.
So, you have to have an appraisal. Do you understand?
- I understand that. - [Judy] You didn't have an appraisal,
I'm not gonna tell it to you again,
and all I want to know is, when she first told you
that you didn't have a deal. So, once she told you
that you didn't have a deal, whatever else you invested
in this property was on you.
No. And I didn't invest anything else other than getting an attorney
and paying everything, I need to pay him.
Once she told you that she wasn't selling the property to you,
what'd you need an attorney for?
You're not the aggrieved party here. You got to park for free
'cause she was a good soul.
I would've had your trailer and your truck towed to an impound, on Day two.
[theme music]
[narratr] Julian Hall has accused his neighbor,
Staci Benedum, of breaking their agreement.
Staci claims there was never an agreement and is countersuing for parking fees.
Once she told you that she wasn't selling the property to you,
what'd you need an attorney for?
Because I had already had an investment
after she said she was gonna sell it to me.
Once the attorney got involved, he told me to dismiss the case.
Then after that, like three days later, I moved off the property.
Just a minute. So, who brought a civil case?
- I did. - [Judy] When?
Last year of '21.
[Judy] And what happened with that case?
[Julian] It was dismissed.
[Judy] What did you bring a case against her for?
For breach of contract.
It was dismissed because there was no contract.
- [Staci] Your Honor, can I say something? - [Judy] What?
He made all these improvements in 2018 before we ever discussed
- selling the property. - You mean he put the gravel in?
- Yeah. - Well, how could he
put the gravel in over the trees?
- The trees were cut down in 2018. - [Judy] Is that right, sir?
- Just... - That was, that's correct.
The trees that were cut down in 2018,
- well before this... - Yes.
So, you did use it. You used it for how many years?
You used it '18, '19, '20 and '21. You used it.
You used it. You had value from it. You had value
from somebody else's property. You used her property for you to park on.
I wouldn't have done none of this if she would've told me no.
Every move that I made, I asked her first.
I got it in text message. I asked her can I do this, can I do this,
she said, "Yeah, go ahead and do it.
If she would've said no, I wouldn't have done none of it.
I wouldn't have put a dime into the property.
I'm not going back to 2018, sir. If you made these improvements
in the property in 2018 or 2019, before there was any hint of a writing
that she was going to sell you property...
She had a verbal that I can park there as long as I wanted to.
Okay. Your case is dismissed. Mr. Hall, you don't have a case.
You did park there until she told you not to park there anymore,
and you had the benefit of parking there for at least three years.
I got money invested that she told me...
You had the benefit of parking your things there for at least three years.
- Are they gone now? - His truck and trailer are
but the gravel's still there and we have to clean up,
- you know, get rid of that stuff. - [Judy] It was a huge mistake.
So, you're gonna have to take care of that yourself.
- Okay. - And I would take care of that
- because that looks ridiculous. - [Staci] I will.
That looks ridiculous. You have a counterclaim?
- Yes. - [Judy] For parking.
- Forget it. - But listen,
I told him he couldn't park there back in May of 2021.
He continued to park there till...
So, you should have been more vigilant.
My attorney didn't notify him till May of this year of 2022,
that if he continues to park there, we'll charge him $75 a day.
And he continued to park there until the case
was dismissed in August of 2022.
So, I'm only suing him for May of 2022 to August of '22.
And did he move it?
- He did. - Okay. You still living there?
- Yes. - [Judy] Do you talk to him?
- No. - [Judy] Had you talked to him previously?
- Yeah. - We had a good relationship.
I'm a common sense person and a property owner.
It was overreaching
to think that you could buy a piece of that land for $1,000.
Overreaching. And if she had it appraised,
and if it's something that you want and she had, I guarantee you
that that little piece of property would be appraised
at a far higher cost than $1,000, guaranteed.
And I guarantee you that her bank
would say, "You can't let him buy that piece of property for $1,000."
How much of a mortgage are you carrying?
$76,000.
[Judy] Not gonna let her sell off that piece of property.
You had the benefit of that piece of property for several years.
I have to tell you that I really think
that it's much nicer to look at plain grass
than it is to look at a trailer and a truck from her backyard.
Your Honor, I wouldn't have done none of it if she wouldn't have said do it.
[Judy] Do you know what your attorney said to you?
I can't help you. You don't have a contract.
And Mr. Hall, that's what I'm telling you.
I can't help you. You don't have a contract.
And from what I know now, this all started in 2018
before there was any discussion of buying the property
that you can prove to me, 'cause the thing that you gave me was in 2021.
I have to tell you never had a problem 'cause she was a good neighbor,
if she let you park on her property.
So, if you think you are the one who's been aggrieved here,
truth of the matter is I don't think that you are the one who was aggrieved here.
She let you park on her property.
I have to tell you, I wouldn't have let that happen.
I had a neighbor who had an easement, and I said, all I want from you
when I bought the house was I want you to say
that you will never try to claim this property
by adverse possession
and that you understand that it's my property,
and then you can use it. 'Cause it was a place
that looked like it was part of his driveway.
- Mm-hmm. - And he said, "I'm not signing that."
I said, if you don't sign it, I'm going to put a fence
right in the middle of your front lawn which is where my property line is.
I don't hear from him. I said, you have 24 hours to sign the paper.
Or I'm putting a fence right in the middle of your front lawn,
'cause that's my property and you have an easement.
And he didn't sign it.
He would've lived with the fence until today, 'cause it's still there.
Now his children are living with the fence because he's gone.
You're not the aggrieved party here.
You got to park for free for four years, for free.
'Cause she was a good soul. She's not a bad guy.
She was a good soul. I would've had your...
I would've had your trailer and your truck towed
to an impound on Day two. She let you park there for four years.
- I wouldn't have been there... - Goodbye. We're done. Thank you.
[bailiff] This Court is adjourned.
She knew what type of work I did, so she said as long as I needed it.
It was just a tough lesson of being nice to the wrong person.
It did look like it was part of my yard. So, I get that part.
I hope we can be cordial and just move on with our life.
It is what it is.
This is a great example of the statute of frauds and why it exists.
So, all writings for the sale of land,
real estate, have to be in writing and signed by both parties.
I'm sure it was created for situations just like these.
There's a lot of moving parts.
There's mortgages, there's banks involved a lot of the times.
There are easements, there are water rights.
- Exactly. - There are all kinds of things.
Legally, there's some of the most complex documents that get drawn up.
So, it can't be a text message for $1,000 to sell off a piece of land
- without all the boxes being ticked. - [Judy] Right.
After May of 2021, when she wrote that piece...
For his detrimental reliance on this statement
For his reliance on that statement to his own detriment.
by putting in gravel and other stuff.
- But then it came out, it was-- - It was put down
in '18, before she ever said anything about selling it.
- He took it upon himself. - Yeah.
- That would be on him. - Yeah.
And I don't feel badly for him 'cause he got to park
on property that wasn't his for almost four years.
Yeah.
[narrator] Want justice? Go to JudyJustice.tv.