What do you do when you “win” and “lose” at the same time? You appeal.

I received a very strange judgement in the mail on August 28, 2009 that I will be appealing. I was awarded a judgement of $1,325.00. No problem you say? Well, we were bound by a Lease and the Lease stated that should the tenant go into default, they would be responsible for the entire lease.

And the modification I had motioned for at the beginning of the court hearing was in excess of $5,000.

So what happened? I did not receive the evidence I had submitted so I called the court. Apparently they had been doing things wrong over the past several years and had to hold onto the evidence for thirty days in case of an appeal. Okay, no problem I thought. I had thirty days to file an appeal.

I go to the court on Wednesday to order the CD to be transcribed for the appeal and I’m told that I have to “write a note” to the head court clerk to ask for the cd. I thought that was strange but I do and they give me a copy of the note I write.

Then I call on Friday to get a status of the CD and I’m told that the note was still on the clerk’s desk. I ask when she will get to it, and then I’m questioned by the person who answers the phone. “Why do you want to appeal? Didn’t you win a judgement?”

Now I’m getting angry, who the hell are they to question me? I tell her yes, but it wasn’t the amount I expected. The reason on the judgement sheet that the judge signed was “Circumstances and evidence.” Nothing else. So I’m appealing it because its a matter of law.

Then I start to think, maybe they don’t have the evidence. Mr. White had tried to leave the courtroom with one piece of evidence that I grabbed out of his hand, who knows what Ms. Johnson left with? Thankfully I have copies of all the evidence I submitted and the transcript will show that it was submitted to the court.

This should prove to be  very interesting. I can hardly wait.