Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
I was given a custom surfboard as a birthday gift a couple of months ago by my ex girlfriend. After an ugly break-up, she decided that she was going to keep the board after I had left it at her apartment after a day of surfing. There are multiple people, including the man who shaped and designed the board, that know the board was given to me as a gift and I had rightful possession of it for quite some time. Is the board legally mine? And if so, how do I go about getting it back?
2 Answers from Attorneys
If the board was given to you as a gift, it is yours. You may bring an action, in court, to recover the board or, alternatively, for the board's value. If the board is worth less than $7500, and you are an individual (not a business), you can bring the action in Small Claims Court. If you are a business, you can go to Small Claims Court for a claim up to $5,000.
If you go to court, be sure to bring some evidence of the board's value. You might bring in materials, showing the value of comparable boards or, even better, you can bring in a person, who is an expert on the value of custom boards.
Note that your ex can claim storage fees to offset the value of your claim. Thus, if you are going to take legal action, it would be best for you to do it as soon as possible.
Saltzman is wrong in one respect. Your ex has no right to claim storage fees. A party who is guilty of unlawfully detaining another person's personal property has no right to then claim storage fees. That's just absurd.
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