Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
small claims appeal
We had a storage unit where we got behind on the rent. when we went down to pay the rent, we were told they had destroyed our stuff and thrown it away. The law states a notice of lien sale must be sent out and the lien sale must be posted in the local paper etc. We had presented the court with a itemized list of the contents of the unit the list came to over $9,000.00, but we could only sue for $5,000.00.we received the ruling today from the judge saying the judgement was entered in favor of the defendant. Any damages to plaintiff are offset by monies owed to defendants from plaintiff. No mention was ever made regarding what we owned the storage unit, so how can the judge conclude that what we owned then would be offset? offset by what???The storage unit by law is to have an auction to pay the storage fees, but any thing over that is to go back to the storage unit owner. The storage unit, never even tried to sell our stuff, he clearly said he destroyed it or gave it away. What recourse do we have when the judge clearly has disregarded the law., the laws are clearly spelled out in the business and professions code, and again we submitted copies of the laws in our complaint.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: small claims appeal
Your message isn't entirely clear on this point, but I take it you were the plaintiff in the small claims action. A plaintiff in small claims court cannot appeal an unfavorable result; you could have preserved the right to appeal by bringing a regular lawsuit, but this is part of the tradeoff for the speed and low cost of a small claims case.
Having filed a suit about this issue already, you cannot file a new suit in a different court.
There may be a procedure in small claims to seek a reconsideration, but I don't know if there is or how it works; maybe someone else on this service can help. If there is no such procedure, you may be out of luck.
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