You hired Mr. Ferguson to power wash and stain your deck.
[man] I tried several times to get hold of him
and was ghosted.
They just ignored me, so now I'm ignoring them.
-No! -Why didn't you just go back?
We wouldn't be in court.
Contracting is something that
is between a client and contractor.
Once that trust is broken, it's broken both ways.
You gotta stop, this was not a marriage.
He didn't cheat on you with another contractor.
You just had your panties in a twist.
[narrator] Now, on Tribunal Justice...
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[narrator] Today's case was filed in Clayton, Missouri.
[Britt] Your Honor, this is case #3034, Sapienza v. Ferguson.
All parties have been sworn in.
-Thank you, Cassandra. -You're welcome. You may be seated.
[DiMango] Mr. Sapienza, you hired Mr. Ferguson to power wash and stain
your privacy fence and your deck in your yard.
He did the power washing. There was a massive hailstorm
which prevented him from moving forward,
and you say he refused thereafter to come back and finish it,
so, therefore, you're suing him for $1,350.
Mr. Ferguson, you said that he badmouthed you on posts,
and you just didn't want to be bothered with him any longer.
You never went back because you thought that he had fired you.
So you don't owe him anything.
So let's start. First, let's look at your deck.
Can we see P1?
-Okay, that's your deck. -That was the deck
-prior to being stained. -[DiMango] Correct.
And let's see the deck with the hail.
That's the hail. I mean, I couldn't get over that when I saw that.
I've never seen hail like that.
-[Joseph] It was a heck of a hail. -What jurisdiction are you in?
In St. Louis, Missouri, the county of St. Louis, Missouri.
And that caused damage-- I mean, literally pockmarks in your deck.
-[Joseph] Yes, damaged. -Okay, so how did come to hire
Mr. Ferguson in the first place?
There's a neighborhood website, if you will, called Nextdoor,
and just was looking for recommendations,
or you know people saying who they use for power washing
or staining their decks or fences.
And his was one of the names that popped up.
[DiMango] You contract with him for how much money?
Um, the total was 3,000, it was--
Half-- We paid him 1,850--
-[DiMango] So it was $3,700? -Yeah, 37.
And is that accurate, sir?
The contract amount was for-- in the amount for $3,700 total.
Labor and material.
Eighteen hundred and fifty down, 1,850 on completion.
[DiMango] I did see something somewhere about power washing
added on as a separate $500. Is that accurate or not?
No, it wasn't added on. That was part of the original.
-Correct? -[Bill] The contract was dated April 30th.
However, the day before that,
Mr. Sapienza had a question for me via text
about the cost of the power washing,
and he asked me if it was $500 for the deck and $500 for the fence,
and I said it was.
-Now he's saying it was $500 for both. -[DiMango] Wait, wait.
I didn't hear anything about five-- I asked specifically
about was there an add-on of $500.
Was it a separate amount set forth for the power washing, Mr. Sapienza?
No, it was a total price.
-And sir, do you agree with that? -It was not mentioned
-in the contract. -[DiMango] Okay.
So you agreed on April 30th, you signed the contract.
In May, you come and you pressure wash
-the deck and fence. Correct? -[Bill] Yes, ma'am.
In the meantime, before the hailstorm happened,
a third party named Jeff texted me and asked me to change the contract.
Instead of the color that they had chosen for me,
they wanted to go in a different color, and different manufacturer altogether.
[DiMango] Okay, let's pause a second. Who's Jeff?
-That'd be my husband. -[DiMango] Okay.
Did you agree initially on the staining? Did you agree on a color?
We gave him a stain, a little can of stain from what was left of the original deck.
-So hopefully, to match that. -[DiMango] Mm-hmm.
You picked a stain color. What color was it that you picked?
-I don't-- -Do you recall?
So I'll refresh your recollection.
"Hey, Bill, this is Jeff.
I don't want the color Chestnut. That is the color on the can that we gave you.
We want Valspar Rusticana for the deck,
and Cedar Naturaltone for the fence."
And then you write, "I have already bought the stain.
It was a special-order product."
Jeff says, "I was afraid of that. Send me the invoice, we'll take care of it."
We have an invoice in here that says
-that was 300 and some-odd dollars. -[Bill] I do.
-Is that correct? $302. -$302.15
-Did they take care of the cost of that? -[Bill] No, ma'am.
No money was ever paid.
I had to replace that with the color that they ordered,
which was another $480.
But you didn't give us any proof of that in here, did you?
-I did not. -So now the hailstorm damages the deck.
What happens next?
We had to put everything on hold because we had to see
what the insurance was going to pay for and not pay for,
cover as far as the damage on the, uh, the deck and the fence.
Accurate? He says, "Listen, I'm gonna contact my insurance company.
You've got to wait." Would that be correct, sir?
He's gonna wait and postpone everything until the insurance company
makes their decision.
Now, in June, you reach out to him. What do you ask him in June?
I asked him if he was a preferred contractor for our insurance company.
Are you a preferred contractor with the insurance company that he used?
-No. -[DiMango] But you do have a contract
-with him, and you're now putting him off. -[Joseph] I do.
-Correct, this is now month three. -[Joseph] I did state in the text.
You had April, you had May, June,
now finally in July, what happens?
Does the insurance company come back to you?
The insurance company came back and told us what they would and wouldn't cover.
They wanted to power wash the deck again,
uh, just to see if all the little dimples would come out.
-Did you use his services? -[Joseph] No.
I tried to keep him informed, telling him what was going on with the insurance.
So then you did tell him, "We're gonna go forward with the insurance company
preferred contractor to have the deck power washed again."
-Power washed. Correct. -Correct?
-[Bill] No, ma'am.
He never ever told me he was going to hire anybody else.
At which point, July 20th, I considered that to be a breach of contract,
and my services were no longer needed.
[DiMango] And then, what did you do then, sir?
After I tried several times to get a hold of him and was ghosted,
um, I went ahead back to the neighborhood website.
One woman posted she was also having trouble getting hold of him.
And I replied to that post, and I said, "I don't know if he's still in business,
but here's the number that I used to contact Mr. Ferguson."
So that was the only thing that was put in that text.
Why didn't you just send him a text that said, "I'm done"?
It was the same reason they didn't respond to my request for payment on the--
Four months prior for the stain.
They just ignored me, so now I'm ignoring them.
Okay, so let's see what else we can glean from what's going on
between the two of you. Judge Levy.
[Levy] Is that right? July 20th, it's your position
that there was a breach as Judge DiMango just suggested.
-July 20th. When he told me... -[Levy] July 20th.
...that there was a preferred contractor coming to work...
You believe there was a breach right then and there?
Well, before that, but that finalized it, yes.
That's not true, that's a lie.
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice...
The paperwork that you submitted, this contract
and the text messages establish the fact that you're a liar.
[narrator] Joseph Sapienza claims contractor Bill Ferguson
refused to finish staining his backyard deck and fence.
Now he's suing for $1,350.
But Bill says Joseph made him special order stain,
then changed his mind and didn't pay for it,
so he owes nothing.
July 20th. It's your position that there was a breach
-as Judge DiMango just suggested. -July 20th.
And when he told there was a preferred contractor
-coming to work... -July 20th.
You believe there was a breach right then and there?
Well, before that, but that finalized it, yes.
That's not true, that's a lie.
Five days after you said the contract was done, you sent him a text
saying, "We can finish in September."
[Joseph] And we were okay with that.
Why'd you lie to Judge DiMango?
You just had your panties in a twist.
Tell me about this invoice for this special paint
that you just provided us today.
You're a contractor, so you buy your materials at a wholesale place, right?
And you have an account at that place, right?
-I get a discount, yes. -And you have an account there.
And when you go, as all contractors do,
you include on the house account what job it is
that the items that you are purchasing go to.
So, where is his address on there?
Where is the address of the job?
It's not on there. Have you ever seen this invoice?
Uh, we sent picture of it in the text, nothing...
-[Levy] And that was it? That was it. -There was no...
So when you originally quote, $3,700 was the total job, right?
-With power washing, yes. -But it was $3,200
-for the stain of the fence... -Correct.
-...and the deck. -Correct.
And then $500 extra for the power washing.
-Absolutely not. -[Levy] Absolutely not? Really?
Go to your text.
April 24th. This is you:
"Hi, Joe, Bill Ferguson here.
The estimate for the deck and fence staining comes at $3,200.
Power washing will add another $500.
What I meant was it's $500 for each.
-[Levy] That's not what you said. -Power washing the deck and the fence.
Why don't you go to the original estimate?
[Bill] Then I misread the question.
April 30th, 2024.
-Show it to him, please. -[Bill] April 30th, the contract?
-The contract. Do you have it? -[Bill] Yes.
-I don't have it here. -There you go, take a look at it.
Oh, my goodness.
Why don't you read it out loud, please? What does it say?
"Power wash deck, railings, stairs, and posts."
Two power washes, right?
-[Bill] Yes. -How much?
-Thirty-seven hundred dollars. -Yes.
[laughs] That's why you lied.
With respect to the special order. I want to get back to that.
You indicated on that quote that it included all materials.
What stain was that? What were you going to put on?
The stain that [falters] I bought.
[Levy] And what stain was that?
The stain that's on the invoice.
-What invoice? -The invoice that I showed you.
I want you to explain to me how you know that this invoice
was for the Plaintiff's job.
The 10 items listed are gallons of stain.
Show me where it says that it was the special-order stain
for the Plaintiff's job.
That's the paint manufacturer's numbers, not mine.
This is a pointless invoice. And you knew that.
Yeah, it didn't have our name or anything on it.
Of course, it's not your first rodeo.
So if I understand you, your argument is that "I kept the Plaintiff's money,"
the half payment of $1,850.
Five hundred of that you earned for doing the power wash.
You said it was 1,000. But we'll take care of that issue in the back.
So, 500 of that is gone.
That leaves 1,350.
You claim to have this special-order paint that you think you're entitled to, right?
For $300.
-[Bill] Yes. -That you can't return.
So in your mind, you're saying I'm gonna take part of that 1,350,
and I'm just going to pay myself for that special-order paint. Right?
What we have-- what you're talking about is a breach of contract.
Stop! Am I right with the math?
The contract's down payment was $1,850.
-There is no 1,350. -[Levy] What!
The paperwork that you submitted, this contract
and the text messages establish the fact that you're a liar.
I've honestly told you the truth, and I certainly didn't lie to anybody.
You still owe him money, as far as I'm concerned.
-Judge Acker. -Thank you, Judge Levy.
I want to back up with you, sir, and clarify a few points.
When the Plaintiff said, "September's fine,"
why didn't you just go back? We wouldn't be in court.
The reason-- because what this judge is saying was--
is not really a receipt, is a receipt and I had to pay it.
It was their fault that I had to pay this.
They did not reimburse me for this.
That's when I decided that this is a breach of contract.
-It's not fair to me. -[Acker] Hang on, hang on.
They paid you $1,800 up front, correct? -1,850, yes, ma'am.
So even if I take your position that you meant to say
that the power washing was a thousand dollars,
you still have 800 of their dollars.
Why would you get so bent out of shape
over an allegedly unreimbursed invoice
when they've already overpaid you for what you've done thus far?
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice...
He just said, "Hold on for a second while I talk to my insurance company."
You just got all mad, because I guess
you believe in contractor monogamy.
[narrator] Joseph Sapienza says contractor Bill Ferguson
refused to finish staining his backyard deck and fence.
Joseph now wants his down payment back, $1,350.
But Bill claims he did the work he was paid for, and that Joseph is the one
who breached their contract.
Why would you get so bent out of shape
over an allegedly unreimbursed invoice
when they've already overpaid you for what you've done thus far?
I've got the 300 here for the stain.
I've paid another almost $500 for the new stain that they ordered
that's-- and then it's a thousand dollars for the power washing that we did.
-Contracting, I've been-- -[Acker] So you say.
I've been at the contracting business for a very long time.
Sir, sir, sir.
If you were that concerned about that unreimbursed invoice,
why not simply say, "You know what, I'd like to clear this invoice first,"
especially if there's been a big gap in time in the work.
Like, we're all grown-ups here.
When they told me they would reimburse me for the stain that I had to return
because it was special order, I took them at their word.
Contracting is between a client and a contractor.
-[Acker] Look. Everybody-- -It's a trust.
Once that trust is broken, it's broken both ways.
You gotta stop. This was not a marriage.
This was a business relationship.
He didn't cheat on you with another contractor.
This was an arms-length business transaction.
His deck was damaged. He wanted to see if you were going to be covered.
He just said, "Hold on for a second while I talk to my insurance company."
You just got all mad because I guess you believe in contractor monogamy,
but I just don't think it's that serious.
What did you think was going on?
We do have that text of the invoice,
but as Judge Levy said, there was nothing on there that said it was ours.
So we didn't know. And again, at the end, if he says we fired him,
does that mean he gets to keep all this stain that he bought for us?
I mean, it didn't-- None of it made sense, so I'm trying to talk to him,
but he's not replying to me.
-Did he ever say I can't come back... -I sent him stuff to keep him up to speed.
-...until you clear this? Did he say that? -No!
We thought he was coming.
"Send me an invoice. We'll take care of it." I never, ever got a response.
Still have not. To this day.
That's not true. In your answer you said,
"I said I'd come back, and they couldn't wait."
He did say he could wait.
He said, "Fine, September."
So, sir, I'm sorry, you've not been candid.
I don't have anything else.
I just have a couple of follow-up questions for both of you.
When you got the invoice, why did you say to him,
"Hey, how do we know this belongs to us?"
We honestly thought that was, like, the preliminary, like--
This is what I'm going to be buying. We didn't know he bought it or--
But he did say, "I bought it and Jeff said we'll cover it,
send the invoice," and he sends this.
So, why didn't you then say,
"Well, how do I know this is our invoice?"
Yeah, that is not our invoice that we knew of,
and I wanted a paper copy of this.
What did you have? You didn't have a paper copy?
I have a text of it, that's all I have.
And now I say to you, you can't submit documents to clients
where they themselves have no way of knowing
whether or not they're accurate, truthful or not.
It just says 10 items. It could have been 10 nails.
And can you return the paint color
that wasn't a special order by then, the Valspar and the other one?
Within 30 days you can, but after that you can't.
But then you could have, so the point is you could've returned that.
One other thing, why wouldn't you want his business?
I mean, he paid you. It's not like he screwed you
out of the first half that you asked for.
-It made no sense. -Once it becomes a point
where someone owes you money, and they did not pay, and they do not respond
-to your bill, that's why. -[DiMango] That's it.
-Well, I thank you... -I have two things.
-Couple of questions. -Yep, just two.
Following up. 'Cause I was a little confused.
You're arguing the $500 was each. To power wash the deck, $500,
and power wash the fence, $500.
-That's a thousand dollars. -Correct.
You would agree that the amount that you charged for the staining was $3,200?
No. The contract was 3,700.
Stop! You have a text message that clearly says
the staining was $3,200.
That was a preliminary discussion before the contract.
It's not part of the contract.
[Levy] What? Oh, my God.
That's just plain dishonest. You know that. I have nothing further.
So, since you're on the defense, I'll let you have the last word.
Quite frankly, I'm flabbergasted. I tried to present an honest case.
I'm an honest person.
Obviously, it didn't work.
-I have nothing else. -We're gonna retire to deliberate.
-Thank you both. -[Joseph] Thank you, Judges.
Court is now in recess. Parties will be recalled.
Okay, so I think we all made the same points with regard to the $500.
And I know that he agreed to stain for 3,200,
and add on that 500 to the bill to make it 37.
When he comes in, he power washes, and he doesn't do beyond that.
My feeling is I'm willing to have the Defendant keep the $500
and return the 1,350 to the Plaintiff.
First of all, he says he's an honest guy, he's an honest contractor.
He's not.
And it's the reason why the Plaintiff, when he went online to check him out,
got that very same feedback from the people in the community.
He's a grifter.
I said, "Listen, isn't it true that you just kept that 1,350
and figured you got to pay yourself for whatever it is that you spent?"
And of course, the answer is yes, but he denied it.
He said no, it was just a breach of contract.
'Cause what I was gonna say is if you use that 1,350
to pay yourself back for these nonsense invoices that you gave us today,
then why not give them the specialty paint?
And-- but for the fact that the Plaintiff kept these copious records,
he would have gotten away with it.
He owes, to your point, the 1,350.
I was also really troubled by the fact
that his testimony today was so completely at odds
with the answer that he swore out.
He said today that the Plaintiff breached.
In his answer he said, "I wanted to come back,
and they didn't want to wait,"
which is patently untrue.
The Plaintiff said, "Sure, come back in September.
What's your schedule like?"
And did he really get that offended
over somebody looking at other contractors,
like cheating on him with other contractors?
You know, my goodness, I think he got so worked up
that his story just started to unfold,
so I would certainly join a verdict for 1,350.
Perfect. Unanimous verdict.
Court is back in session. Both parties are reminded that you're still under oath.
-Thank you, Cassandra. -You're welcome.
Gentlemen, much of what you say in the courtroom we can give credit to,
but when it's belied by the text messages,
you know, it's just not a good thing for your position.
And the two things that we hung our hat on with regard to credibility,
really, sir, militated completely against your credibility.
And I'm gonna read them. The April 30th bill is pretty clear.
$3,700 for the whole job, 500 only for the power washing.
And what you did in this case really was just the power washing.
The second thing that we have here is to whether or not
the contract was breached by you, the Plaintiff, or you, sir.
And that last statement here is on July 25th
when he keeps telling you,
"We're leaving you messages," and all,
and you say, sir, "We have moved on after you informed me
that you were using other contractors.
I won't have an opening until September."
The Plaintiff's response, "Understandable."
Once again, you were the one that never followed through.
The receipt that you showed with regard to the paint
clearly did not specify in any way
whether it was for the stain that you used, for the power washing materials.
It was completely unclear,
and no reason for him at that point to pay for it.
And no other reiteration about whether or not
money was due and owing from either one of you in that position.
So it's unanimous. We are going to render a verdict in favor of the Plaintiff.
Sir, minus the $500,
which we're going to allow you obviously to hold onto,
the verdict here is for $1,350.
Verdict in your favor unanimously, sir.
-[gavel bangs] -Thank you.
This case has concluded. All parties are excused.
Today, I got called a liar by a judge.
It feels it's just, so I'm glad it turned out this way,
although I'm sorry it had to happen in the first place.
Well, apparently he had a lot more savvy as to putting text messages down
on a printed page than I do because I have none.
It's shame he had to ghost me, I mean, I think we could've worked it out
if we would've just talked,
but you can't talk to somebody who won't talk to me, so...
He got paid both times.
No, we did not get paid by the insurance company for the decking at all.
I've worked with people like him before, and I just try to avoid them.
It's stained and it's done, so we'll just move on.
[narrator] Did someone break an agreement?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case. Find us on social media.
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