-I had dreadlocks for nine years. -Nine years?
It was a spiritual battle that was taking place.
The Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair.
Your complaint is, "I went to the barber,
I was cut with a razor."
You say that you felt like your forehead was melting.
You didn't say to the guy, "Whoa, I got blood. What's going on?"
Spiritually, I was happy. I had joy.
You can literally see that something was going on mentally.
[narrator] Now on Tribunal Justice.
[theme music playing]
[narrator] Today's case was filed in Oakland, California.
Your Honor, this is case number 3004 on the calendar
in the matter of Anthony versus Oneal.
Parties have been sworn in. Be seated.
[Acker] Thank you.
-Mr. Anthony. -Good evening.
You had been a client at the Defendant's barber shop for about three months
on August 1st, when you went in to edge your hairline.
Why don't you explain to folks what that means, to edge one's hairline?
Your Honor, I had dreadlocks for nine years.
Nine years? I thought I read that. Down to your shoulders.
Yes, ma'am. Instead of me cutting all my hair off,
I'd look a lot better if I just cleaned up the front area,
-lined it up. -Clean up the edges?
-Yes. -[Acker] And then, interestingly,
the night after you go to the Defendant,
you want to cut off the locks.
So August 2nd, you go back to the Defendant's shop,
but he is occupied, he can't see you.
You see another barber.
You allege that that barber used equipment that may have been infected.
You say that you ultimately felt like your forehead was melting,
and that you were in really great pain
after the second barber worked on your hair.
And because that second barber was a barber in the Defendant's shop,
you're suing the Defendant for $9,500
because you claim the second barber used an unsanitary razor,
which caused injuries to your forehead and hairline.
Mr. Oneal, you say that while you do take responsibility
-for your client's well-being... -Definitely.
...since they're your patrons, you think he is overreaching,
and that suing you for $9,500 in these circumstances is absolutely outrageous.
I mean, it is. To kind of like sit here and witness
that he said his forehead was melting.
-I've never, ever seen that. -[Acker] That's what he says it felt like.
And we'll get to that, but on August 1st,
tell me what you did to the Plaintiff.
So, as you said, he came in, he had dreadlocks on top,
um, he came in, he wanted a taper.
A taper is where I will put the dreadlocks in a ponytail
and I would ball it out, and I would taper it.
So similar to how mines look, just imagine dreads on top.
[Acker] And then, Mr. Anthony, what happened
that you come home and you say, "You know what?
My nine-year hair project is now over"?
Your Honor, it was a spiritual battle that was taking place the whole time
before I even got there to the barbershop to get the lineup.
I just was seeking God, reading the Bible a lot more.
In the Bible, it says it's a shame for a man to have long hair.
I just got revelation, and I went back to get my locks cut off.
-[Acker] The next day? -Correct.
So, August 2nd, you go back to the shop. Tell me what happens,
just walk us through it, if you would.
Uh, first I got there
and I seen that Mr. Oneal was busy and he had a lot of clients,
so he just recommended me to go to the other barber.
What did you tell the other barber?
Uh, that I just wanted to cut my locks off.
I didn't ask for a lineup. I asked to get my locks cut.
Now, Mr. Oneal, were you present during this?
Yes. I'm going to kind of piggyback off of what he was saying.
Uh, he came in. You can literally see that something was going on,
like something mentally, saying some wild things out loud.
Stuff like, "Are you guys ready for Jesus to come back?"
Uh, "It's a sin."
He was saying some things that struck you as eccentric.
Exactly. He was saying everything he just said,
as far as, you know, "God's told me to cut my hair,"
and I was kind of struck by that.
Did you witness the other barber work on him?
I saw him give him a full haircut.
And Mr. Anthony, when you finished the service with the second barber,
tell me what you said, what happened?
Um, it was a release of energy for me, um,
it was nine years, I was in a group in church
and I just started growing my hair out.
I knew it was wrong from the beginning. So when he started cutting my hair,
I felt an ultimate release, and I let him know that.
So you felt good about it?
-I felt very great about it. -Were you in any pain when you left?
I was in pain when I left. Yes.
As this barber was working on your edges, did you feel any cuts?
-Yes. Yes, Your Honor. -Did you tell him that?
I looked at him, and he just kept on going as if nothing happened.
You looked at him, but did you tell him that you were feeling pain?
-No. -So after he finishes the cut,
he puts some sort of ointment on your hair, doesn't he?
Uh, hair enhancement.
Uh, is that the stuff you spray so it looks like it's fuller than it is?
-Correct. -Yes.
[Acker] Can we put up Exhibit 1, please?
This is the first haircut. This is when I still had locks.
[Acker] These are your edges after the first haircut.
-Correct. -Did the Defendant
spray the enhancement on?
-Yes, ma'am. -So when you returned the second day,
was the enhancement still visible on your hairline?
No, Your Honor, I took a shower,
and that haircut right there, I felt no burning at all...
No burning at all. Can we put up Exhibit 4, please?
Mr. Anthony, you've submitted this photograph
to represent the condition after the second haircut.
Was that the condition of your forehead immediately upon leaving,
or did it get irritated like that a little bit after?
Uh, after. I took a shower and I looked in the mirror
and I seen that I had not two cuts or one,
but I had three abrasions on my forehead and my skin was red.
So I have a question for you. If you put the razor to his hairline on August 1st,
why would your barber do it again on August 2nd?
Because you're then now running a razor over skin
that's already been shaven the day before.
I have to look-- By looking at this,
this doesn't exactly indicate that the barber necessarily did that.
And the reason I say that is even my witness that I brought,
I lined him up yesterday, and then I lined him up again today.
I used-- I did the same method I did yesterday, I did today.
Like, we're both grown. And if I knew you lined me up today
and I didn't want to be lined up tomorrow,
I would stop you in the process of you doing it.
So if you sit there and you allow someone to do it,
that will indicate that this is what you want.
When people sit down, we're going to charge you the same price
that it costs to cut your locks off or get a taper--
If you did not want him to do that, why not say stop doing it?
It's not a bad point.
Your Honor, that is a good point, um,
at the time being when I got my locks cut off,
I was very-- Spiritually, I was happy, I had joy
that I'm overcoming something.
I didn't really notice that he was doing my edge-up
until I felt he was doing my edge-up with the razor.
So you weren't really paying very close attention is what you're saying?
-Yes, Ma'am. -Thank you. Judge DiMango?
-So-- -[DiMango] No, hang on.
Because I'm still not understanding why anybody
would come that far down your forehead with anything.
That's like in the center of his head.
Now, there must have been some blood, right?
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
Why is it that you didn't sue the other barber?
[narrator] Daniel Anthony is suing barbershop owner Albert Oneal for $9,500.
Anthony says a haircut with a dirty razor gave him a bleeding head wound.
But Albert says Daniel left the shop without complaining,
and Daniel's problems are inside his head, so he owes nothing.
There must have been some blood, right?
-I just asked for my dreadlocks to be cut. -[DiMango] No, there was no blood, right?
That's what I'm-- There was no blood. You didn't have to wipe it with--
I'm going to tell you, I looked at this, it looks like it's blistering a little,
and it's red and it's lumpy.
Kind of looks more consistent with an irritation than a cutting with a blade.
-I had blood, Your Honor. -[DiMango] You said you had no blood.
Were you bleeding in the shop?
I was bleeding right there-- Actually, I believe I was.
You didn't say to the guy, "Whoa, I got blood. What's going on?"
No, at the time it was a hair enhancement sprayed on top of my forehead.
[DiMango] But that's not going to close up a wound.
-It doesn't. -It covers it.
I don't know if he got infected by the mango drip, from hair oil.
I don't know if he got infected from the tonic that enhances your hair.
-I mean-- -Do you have any reason to think
that his forehead was cut?
I'm curious to know when did you take this pic-- When this picture was taken.
[DiMango] When did you take those two photographs?
This is the same day I had went to the ER.
[DiMango] That was on the 10th of August?
-I believe so-- -[DiMango] So you waited a week,
and during that time you were self-treating it, would that be correct?
Uh, just Vaseline.
Just Vaseline, so you were putting Vaseline on this wound.
Okay, so now I want to go back to you a second.
-Uh-huh. -You own the shop.
-Yes. -But you don't own each station.
Like, you rent out the station.
-Yeah, Your Honor. -I'm trying to figure out whether or not,
even if this was something caused by the fellow that cut his hair,
whether or not he's an independent contractor
who might be responsible himself,
and maybe you're just the wrong person in this lawsuit.
So I'd like to know what your relationship with the person in the chair is.
I mean, I'll just take full responsibility because it is my shop.
Everyone is an independent contractor,
which means everyone has their own insurance and things like that.
Right, the fact that that person behaves negligently
may not result in your being responsible.
You may be the wrong person for him,
and if he can't find the person to sue, well, that's just the way things go.
Now, back to you. You had this cut on the second day.
The doctor in the emergency room does what? What does he do?
With, after summary-- uh, after visit summary,
they, uh, the doctor let me know that it was an abrasion, it was a cut from--
-Do we have that? -I believe you do.
Take some Tylenol. Take some Keflex, which is an antibiotic.
Put some Neomycin, which is a bacterial cream.
You have an abrasion. An abrasion is a scraping, an abrasion is not a cut.
I don't see any diagnosis here that says says you have a cut.
So, just-- What do you do for a living?
I work for Tesla. Manufacturing.
-You build cars. -Correct.
Do you wear some kind of helmet or hat or anything like that?
Yes, Ma'am, a wave cap, and I don't have an actual hard hat,
sometimes I'll use my ski mask to cover up what...
Sometimes, through the course of working you're wearing a hard hat?
My understanding with the hard hat is that there's a band that goes across your head.
-Would that be correct? -Correct.
Now, do you use the same hard hat all the time or do you get different ones?
I don't use a hard hat to work on the forklift
-because I had got injured. -How were you injured? What happened?
I got hit by a forklift.
-Where? -On my ankle.
I think I'm going to pass you over to Judge Levy on that one.
In this photograph, Mr. Anthony, when was that taken?
Uh, this is the same day that I left, uh, the ER.
-[Levy] August 10th. -Correct, that's the medication
-they prescribed me. -[Albert] That's a lot.
I mean, like even the second-- The photo.
-Can I go show-- Can I go over? All right. -[Levy] Sure.
Um, so, like, say this photo,
like this area right there, that doesn't look like something
that would come from an edger.
I mean, it looks like, like you said, he was at work
wearing a headband or a wave cap that you probably wear every single day.
You can irritate yourself by putting something on every single day
without washing it, especially working at Tesla.
Yeah, sure. Mr. Anthony, what do you have to add to that?
The whole time before and after the haircut,
I was not working, so I had no hard hat on.
You stay out because of the injury with the forklift?
-Correct. -[Levy] Okay.
So here's really where my issue is.
You see, when you go to the hospital
and you tell the doctors what you claim happened,
what the doctors do is they put that down in their report.
But instead of giving us the full report,
which was ten pages, you only gave us one page,
which was an after-visit summary.
-[Daniel] Correct. -Why?
Uh, the rest of the pages were just for insurance...
Well, no, sir. In an ER report, they will actually indicate why you are there.
Your chief complaint is, "I went to the barber on August 2nd,
that I was cut with a razor,
that I saw blood." That's what it would say in an ER report.
And it's super important for us to know what it was that you told the ER staff
at a point in time before you had a lawsuit filed,
before there was a motive for you to fabricate.
-Do you follow that? -Yes, sir.
So, you had the whole report
and you just didn't give it to us
because you say that it didn't have anything relevant?
-Correct. -[Levy] Okay.
Why is it that you didn't sue the other barber?
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
How do you get to $9,500? Where does that number come from?
[narrator] Daniel Anthony says a visit to Albert Oneal's barber shop
caused severe skin damage and emotional distress,
so he's suing for $9,500,
but Albert says he owes nothing,
and that Anthony is just looking for an easy payday.
Why is it that you didn't sue the other barber?
Your Honor, I tried to reach out-- The other barber
never responded.
I'm looking at that. August 11th, you send a text to the other barber.
"I need your insurance information for the claim I'm filing."
Did you ever file that claim?
Uh, actually, I did not.
-How come? -Uh, this is my first time actually
pursuing a matter.
Well, you were injured at work.
You had a forklift, according to you, run over you.
-Correct. -[Levy] Right? Did you file a claim
-in that action? -They already did.
-So you know about how to file claims. -[Daniel] Correct.
So why didn't you do one here?
The messages right here on August 2nd.
I asked him through text message,
"Hey, can you let your co-worker know that his razors were dirty
and my skin is infected from it."
-[Levy] Okay. Yeah, yeah, stop. -[Albert] He texted me.
If you can prove to me that they were dirty razors,
that's something that's super important.
But there is not one single piece of evidence
that you provided us with to corroborate that claim.
The doctor's summary has.
No, that doesn't say anything about dirty razors.
You would agree with that?
I have no clue about medicine.
Thank you, I have nothing further.
[Acker] Thank you, Judge Levy.
I understand we have an expert witness who's prepared to testify.
-Dr. Singh, please. -Yes, hi.
Good afternoon, Dr. Singh, you've already been sworn.
I'm just going to recite for the record a few of your credentials.
You represent yourself to be a board-certified dermatologist
and hair restoration surgeon for 15 years.
Yes, that's correct.
So have you reviewed the pleadings in this case and listened to the testimony?
Yes, I have. I examined the photographs very closely
and I'm very familiar with line-ups,
but when you use a blade on the skin, we do it very often
with another procedure called derma-blading.
And so when it's used on the skin, it's almost like doing a mini chemical peel,
but it lightly exfoliates the skin.
You may continue to do that a day later,
but another line-up with a razor blade
can cause even further deeper exfoliation.
And then if alcohol, for example, is sprayed on it,
which is slightly caustic, it can cause that burning sensation.
You saw in those pictures, he had redness, and it was truly an abrasion
several days later.
Often, the first couple of days,
it does not look as red, and the skin doesn't peel immediately.
Once the skin does break down,
it is more likely to have what's called secondary impetiginization
where the skin breakdown leads to colonization
of staph and other microbes onto the skin.
I don't think there's any evidence per se that the razor was necessarily dirty.
I just think that the skin broke down and led to secondary infection.
So once the skin has been broken down,
is it then more susceptible to being inflamed or irritated by other products?
It could have just been alcohol, for example,
immediately after the second line-up.
So it's likely that with the skin breakdown,
he was more sensitive to something being applied to the skin.
And it's not anyone's fault, I don't believe.
It's just that the skin was already broken down
and more susceptible to irritation.
And to the the point that was made earlier about the location,
it being a little bit lower, to me it makes sense
that it would be lower on the forehead,
and you can see it was almost a rectangular area.
Just because when you're doing a line-up, you have to go on to the forehead.
You're not going to line back here because it would push the hairline back.
Dr. Singh, do you have an opinion as to whether or not doing the line-up
two days in a row necessarily breaches a standard of care,
or you're like, "It works for some people, doesn't work for other people"?
I can't speak to whether or not it's standard of care.
I just believe that the skin barrier was exfoliated
and broken down with the first line-up, which is completely normal.
And then the second one just made a deeper exfoliation.
[Acker] Thank you for your testimony.
I don't know if my colleagues have questions.
I just have a follow-up. The Plaintiff testified he was cut and he was bleeding,
and that's not consistent with what you see here or what you've discussed.
Is that true?
Yes, I was listening very carefully and he did mention--
Sorry, I don't want to speak for you, Mr. Anthony, but you did mention that,
you know, you weren't exactly sure what happened. You felt burning,
and I think you were saying
that's when you saw blood dripping down your forehead...
-Yeah. -...but it was red.
And so to me that's consistent with a deep chemical exfoliation.
Or physical exfoliation maybe from the razor,
and then alcohol applied afterwards.
To have something burn immediately afterwards,
it just means that your skin has sloughed off.
It could have been the first couple layers of the skin,
so when that occurs, you can feel burning and then when you go to deeper layers,
then that's when you start to see the pink.
And it can bleed, but it's not like blood dripping down your forehead.
That would be more of a deeper cut.
So I don't wanna speak for you, Mr. Anthony,
but based on what you were saying, I do believe that's what you were attesting to.
-Correct. -[DiMango] Thank you,
I have no further questions for you. Thank you very much, Doctor.
-[Levy] Thank you. -[Acker] Thank you, Dr. Singh.
Mr. Anthony, let me ask you about your damages.
-Yes, Ma'am. -How do you get to $9,500?
Where does that number come from?
[narrator] Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
It hurt to just try to wash my face,
to see myself be a lot different.
[narrator] Daniel Anthony says a dirty razor used in Albert Oneal's shop
left him with painful blisters on his forehead.
Now he wants $9,500 for emotional distress.
But Albert says Daniel was out of his mind, talking crazy,
and now looking to make a fast buck.
Mr. Anthony, let me ask you about your damages.
-Yes, ma'am. -How do you get to $9,500?
Where does that number come from?
Just the pain, the suffering that I had to endure.
It hurt to just try to wash my face like I usually do.
It hurt to see myself be a lot different,
um, as far as facial-wise goes.
Okay, I have nothing further.
I don't have any other questions either.
So we're going to retire to deliberate at this time.
-Thank you. -Court now stands in recess.
Parties are excused.
There are so many things that could have happened
that resulted in the abraded skin.
There are some things that are obvious.
You know, as I said at the outset, if you remove a surface of skin,
and then remove a surface again the next day,
it's going to be more vulnerable.
Notably, Dr. Singh did not say that that's necessarily, you know, inappropriate.
It's hard for me to kind of get my head around
some of the Plaintiff's testimony. You know, you're sitting on the chair,
you're so out of it, you're not sure what's going.
It just makes it hard for me to really give credence
to the things he says he knows.
I don't think he's being intentionally deceptive,
I just think that he's not sure enough
about what happened while he was in the chair,
and it's also not clear to me that his post-care protocols
didn't also exacerbate some of the inflammation.
So I would be inclined to dismiss.
Oh, I'm definitely inclined to dismiss.
I also feel the same way. He couldn't establish
that the barber was the proximate cause of the result of what he had here.
He showered both times immediately. He put shampoo on his hair.
I mean, even if you have a slight skin irritation
that might have gone away in a day or so,
once you start to do that to it,
you do exacerbate the actual--
I mean, I'm looking at this here.
He kept saying that there was a cut. There was no cut.
Um, you know, to that extent, I believe he was exaggerating.
I would have found that the hairdresser was in fact an independent contractor,
and something like this would not be something that an owner of a business
would be responsible for.
Absent of showing that there was something that he did directly.
Not providing sufficient fluid for him to clean his tools in,
or a container for it, as is mentioned in the statutes.
So I think under two theories, I would not award the Plaintiff anything.
[Levy] I agree with both of you, and I would just add that
if the Plaintiff had evidence that there was some dirty razors,
that was super important, not just to us.
In his text messages, the doctors told me that.
He has completely failed to hold his burden of proof,
which was pretty lofty to begin with.
And your question then, Tanya, about how do you get to $9,500?
Yeah, he's not even close.
So I think we're unanimous in dismissing this case.
-Yeah. -Very good.
Court is back in session. I remind parties, you're still under oath.
-[Acker] Thank you, Byrd. -Mm-hmm.
Mr. Anthony. We've deliberated and we're unanimous,
and we have concluded that we must dismiss your case for a few reasons.
The primary deficiency that you alleged
was that there was an unsanitary razor used on your hair,
and there's just no evidence of any lack of care by the Defendant
or the other barber, by the way, who may have serviced you.
The other issue that we had is that there are so many intervening causes
that could have resulted in that inflammation,
that it is not possible, nor would it be legally responsible for us
to pin all of that damage at his doorstep.
Thirdly, your recollection of some of the events makes it impossible
for you really to, I think, build the chain of causation that you need to.
Then it becomes especially hard for us to suggest
that those injuries were the result of the double abrading
that Dr. Singh testified about,
and you haven't made your case, so we must dismiss it.
Uh, Mr. Oneal, before I let you go,
I've got a really important question. How's Byrd's edge?
I think he's doing it right.
Man, I do got the liners right here, I could hook you up.
[all laughing]
-I'm just saying. -[Acker] Oh, Byrd always looks good.
You always got it tight.
Hey, you put that enhancement in, sharpen it up, though.
[all laughing]
[Acker] We do wish you both the best.
Sir, we must dismiss your case, good luck to you both.
-[gavel bangs] -This case is now concluded.
Parties are excused. You may step out.
Everything happens for a reason.
I'm happy with the judgment. We all knew it was bogus.
Everything has a lesson to be learned.
I think it was about money.
God is good. I cannot complain.
As you can see, something's going on with him.
[narrator] Are you being sued?
Let Tribunal Justice decide your case.
Find us on social media at Tribunal Justice.
[theme music playing]