Legal Question in Product Liability in California

Can a big company like, OCE collect monies for their leased machinery from a very small business for 4 years, then turn around suddenlyand send that small company another invoice for 73K stating that they forgot to include the leasing portion of the bill? OCE's accounting firm when auditing found out and sent this huge bill. We tried to negotiate from 2009 to 2010, but their lawyer who was acting tough, refused to accept the offer made by us. Then they stopped the service, whick forced us to disconnect the machines. Only OCE can service our machines, they shut off when there is a problem.

After about a year per attorney's advice, we allowed oCE to pick up the two machines. One was fully paid for including the leases and maintenance. Now they have filed a law suit. We cannot afford to pay high end lawyers, thus hired someone from the bar to negotiate. Had a couple of deposition sessions - no decision was made since oCE is demanding to collect money unreasonably making our lives so miserable. What can we do now? They have filed for some sort of judgement..I forget the law terms! We have to file a response to this by next Tuesday. Can someone help us with some advise.


Asked on 9/08/11, 10:42 am

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

No attorney can help you without knowing what their motion is. If you go to the Court's web site you can see a summary of the actions in the case that will tell you what the motion is. But your response was due some time ago and the court might not allow you to object to the tentative ruling and then appear for oral argument as you failed to respond to their motion. You have not cited any facts that present a defense for you, except that you may be entitled to a credit for the value of the machine you returned and that if they press too hard you will file for bankruptcy and they will get very little. I assume you had a written agreement with them so they are probably within the 4 year statute of limitations and not barred from going after you. The fact that they are a very large company has nothing to do with whether you owe them; the money.

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Answered on 9/08/11, 8:15 pm


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