Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
I wish to sue a person in another country.
Back in February, I got a hold of a person who would make a costume for me for a convention I intended to attend on July 4th Weekend. In the process of talking, I expressed the need to have the costume at least a week prior to the convention, in order to make sure it fits and make any alterations. I paid in full for the costume through Paypal in mid April, bring told it would take about a month and a half. I understood that the man lived overseas in Asia, but was given numerous positive reviews, so I decided to go with him. The agreement was to finish the costume within a month and a half, leaving a week or so for shipping to the states.
Initially, he was very interested in the payment, but after getting it, he became somewhat distant and infrequent with his e-mailed responses. A month prior to the July 4th Weekend, I contact the guy to let him know I would be out of town from the 10th until the 20th on vacation and unable to contact him at all. He told me at that point that he would be finished with the costume by 6/16 and ship it out shortly afterwards. After returning from vacation, I didn�t have a single E-mail from him and became worried. He didn�t get back to me until almost a week later, telling me that due to the weather, he hadn�t been able to paint the costume at all, and that it wouldn�t be ready in time. This of course was an issue because I wanted/needed the costume for the following weekend.
He assured me that it would be finished 10 days from when he contacted me, of course assuming that the weather held up. On July 2nd, I asked for a status update, asking for a time stamp or some proof that the costume had been completed or painted, only to be told nearly 5 days later that the costume would be ready on the 17th. I gave the guy a few extra days, and contacted him on the 20th to see what the status was now, however, he didn�t contact me until the 27th and was now moving shops the second time, and the costume was delayed another 7-10 days.
I paid quite a large sum of money, and I haven�t gotten anything but the run around it seems. I�m tired of dealing with this guy and I feel like he was never building me a costume, instead has stolen my money. I�ve asked Paypal to intervene, but they won�t after 45 days. I would like to sue this guy and get my money back, since I never got my costume that we agreed to have completed for my convention, and even now, I still have nothing to show for it and have kept getting this run around.
However, he is in another country, so I don�t know what I need to do to sue him. As well, I only have an E-mail address, and nothing else. I imagine this guy has a physical address, so that he can be served, but I don�t know how to get it.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You don't yet understand you've been scammed by an offshore artist? Those positive reviews were by him, likely. You don't really expect to get your money back, do you? Are you willing to pay the costs and attorney fees to file suit for fraud here, in order to get power of subpoena to try to get the ISP records showing who and where he is, then try to use the info to try to actually locate him overseas, then try to serve him in accordance with international legal conventions and rules, then try to obtain a court judgment by default or otherwise, then try to locate any assets he may have overseas, then try to obtain cooperation from his local judicial system for enforcement of your judgment and collection on them? You may by now have gathered that it will be difficult, time consuming, and more than a little expensive to 'try'. If serious about doing so and spending substantial money in the process, feel free to let me know. You didn't say how much you got scammed for, but I'm guessing it probably isn't as much as you'll spend in the legal action described.
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