Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

In December 2008, I paid $2,000 to an individual for a stock purchase in his company. The money was first sent to my ex girlfriend, who then put in $2,000 of her own money, sending a total of $4,000 to the individual.

We were never provided stock paperwork, and requested it several times. Having now broke up with my ex girlfriend, I requested a refund of the $2,000 which the individual agreed to in writing via email on numerous occasions. He has yet to provide this refund after a year of contacting him. Likewise, he is no longer returning my calls, emails, or texts.

Here are my questions:

1) Will there be any issue suing the individual when I sent my money to my ex gf, who later sent it to him? Essentially, should I sue him, or her?

2) Is there anything else I can add to the $2,000? I was thinking of interest, or the rate of return I could have expected on that $2,000 based on my gains in stocks this past year. Also, what about time off from work to handle this? What else could I add to collect more money?


Asked on 9/24/10, 12:14 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
George Shers Law Offices of Georges H. Shers

Since your ex-girlfriend did exactly what you asked her to do, why would you think she should be sued? She did nothing wrong. Since it was clearly your money and she was just sending it along, you have standing to sue.

In suits for breach of contract, which this is, damages are limited to actual out of pocket or contract allowed damages. You can not collect for emotional distress, etc. Nor can you ever collect for the time spent to sue for your damages or to ask for your money back. It would be a unique argument to claims the failure to live up to his promises when he spoke to you was negligent interference with economic advantage whilch ils a tort so could include emotional upset as a foreseeable result of his behavior, but you would have to show an abnormal degree of upset.

Since it was not a loan, you are not entitled to interest; perhaps you can claim it from the date he reasonably should have returned the money to you.

You need to check out whether his company has any assets greater than debts and then quickly sue in Small Claims Court.

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Answered on 9/29/10, 9:40 pm


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