The below mentioned is due to a conflict of funds/damaged property between my wife & I, the Defendants & the contractor, Plaintiff who was performing repairs on our dwelling roof, 44 plywood sheets of roof decking, ridge vent on roof, siding, bathroom roof exhaust vents and garage doors. The amount that I did not pay contractor, $808.06, until Plaintiff completes his employee damages to our roof, via scuffed up shingles, bathroom exhaust vents & attic damages. The Plaintiff/contractor recently won in Small Claims Court the sum of $1,828.06, for roof decking that the Judge felt that we owed. This Judge did not allow for me to state the reasons we have not paid the Plaintiff, via photos and contractor estimates, for repairs, the amount of $808.06. Also, although contractor had more than 3 trades in this job, he did not charge us or our carrier overhead & profit but, decided to charge O/P for a garage door company, who he knew, they installed same. Note that contractor/Plaintiff did not oversee the installation of 2 garage doors, so I did not pay contractor O/P accordingly, on these doors, as not incurred.. would I be wrong in this regard? The contractor has a lawyer, we do not. The lawyer sent us the below mentioned Request For Admissions:

1. Please. Admit that you signed the May 7, 2013 roofing proposal, a copy attached as Exhibit 1. (Note that I signed my wife's signature on the contract as she was out of town and wanted to expedite the work process as per carrier damage repair time-line.) She was sent a copy of the same Request for Admissions, to be completed.

2. Please. Admit that you were charged the amount of $... in connection w/ the contract.

3. Please. Admit that the amount of $... was paid to Plaintiff, in connection w/the contract,(less my stated withholding from Defendant, $808.06)

4. Please. Admit that a principal balance is due & owing to Plaintiff under contract of
$1,828.06. ( This is the amt. that the Judge charged us in Small Claims Court w/o allowing us to state/show our photos of our damages and related estimates.)

5. Please. Admit that the work that was performed by Plaintiff in connection w/ the contract was good & workmanlike.

6. Please. Admit that the charges for the work performed by Plaintiff are reasonable.

7. Please. Admit that Plaintiff fulfilled all of its obligations under the contract.

8. Please. Admit that Plaintiff finished its work under the contract in June 2013.

9. Please. Admit that all amounts owed under the contract were due to Plaintiff in June
2013.

10. Please. Admit that Plaintiff is permitted under contract to assess interest against the balance due to Plaintiff at the rate of 1.9% per month.

11. Please. Admit that Plaintiff is permitted under the contract to recover its attorney fees and court costs from you.

As I am sure that you are aware, we filed for trial denovo as the Small Claims Judge would not allow for our presentation of photos and related repair estimates, from the Plaintiffs non-replaced and/or repaired damages. Please help us to properly answer/respond to the above questions in a timely/viable manner. We would be happy to pay the Defendant the balance due, upon repair/replacement of noted damages to our property, thank you for your time and considerations. A Word CD was sent/mailed to us as well... We are very concerned about our position, at this time.

Paul

So answer, refusing to admit anything?

Make them prove you signed, make them prove the work was done.

As them to admit the work was done improperly and then admit they have refused to finish the work properly.

*** I will note, if they have an attorney, you need to get one. In most cases, they will win, merely because the attorney will know, how to file various motions that you will not understand.

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Originally Posted by fr Chuck

So answer, refusing to admit anything? ...

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Wrong answer!

That's not how requests for admissions are to work. If OP refuses to admit, for example

"11. Please. Admit that Plaintiff is permitted under the contract to recover its attorney fees and court costs from you." (assuming that the contract provides that the prevailing party can recover fees and costs)

OP can be sanctioned for wilful failure to abide by the discovery rules regarding admissions.

Without going through each one, I suggest that OP answer each one accurately and completely, to the best of his ability.

Here is how I would respond to each RFA (for wife to sign):

1. Please. Admit that you signed the May 7, 2013 roofing proposal, a copy attached as Exhibit 1."\
I admit that my husband signed said document in my behalf and with my consent.

2. Please. Admit that you were charged the amount of $... in connection w/ the contract.
I admit that this is the amount plaintiff has charged us. I deny that we owe that amount.

3. Please. Admit that the amount of $... was paid to Plaintiff, in connection w/the contract,
I admit that the amount of $_____ was paid.

4. Please. Admit that a principal balance is due & owing to Plaintiff under contract of
$1,828.06.
Denied. I only admit that $____ is owed. Anything in excess of that amount is not owed because ... [explain].

5. Please. Admit that the work that was performed by Plaintiff in connection w/ the contract was good & workmanlike.
Denied. Plaintiff failed to ... [explain].

6. Please. Admit that the charges for the work performed by Plaintiff are reasonable.
I deny that it is reasonable for the plaintiff to charge $___ for ... [specify]

7. Please. Admit that Plaintiff fulfilled all of its obligations under the contract.
Denied. The plaintiff failed to ... [specify].

8. Please. Admit that Plaintiff finished its work under the contract in June 2013.
Denied that the plaintiff completed the work as required by the contract.

9. Please. Admit that all amounts owed under the contract were due to Plaintiff in June
2013.
Denied. For the following reasons, the following amounts were not then, and are not now due: ... [explain].

10. Please. Admit that Plaintiff is permitted under contract to assess interest against the balance due to Plaintiff at the rate of 1.9% per month.
I admit that the plaintiff would, if it had fully performed its obligations under the contract, be permitted to so assess interest, but deny that plaintiff fully performed and thus deny that it is so permitted.

11. Please. Admit that Plaintiff is permitted under the contract to recover its attorney fees and court costs from you.
I admit that the plaintiff would, if it had fully performed its obligations under the contract, be permitted to so recover such fees and costs, but deny that plaintiff fully performed and thus deny that it is so permitted.

This question applies to my original question as follows:

The Defendant, Our Contractor did NOT charge overhead & profit on our hail damage repairs/replacement of our dwelling building components. As we did not have a preference regarding the contractor who would replace our two garage doors we authorized the said Defendant/Contractor to do so, he hired a garage door contractor who installed in good order.

The Defendant chose to include overhead and profit on our two garage doors. I did not pay the Defendant for the O/P as the contractor did not oversee this job, as it was not required, the garage door company knew what they were doing and there was no need for different sub-contractors to follow an ordering system, or what building components to install and at what times in the construction process.

1. Do I owe the Defendant/Contractor the overhead and profit? If so, or not so, please explain accordingly.

2. The Defendant Attorney sent us the prior mentioned Request For Admissions as well as a WORD CD. What are we supposed to do w/ this CD? Please forgive our ignorance, this is all new to us. Thank you for your time and assistance.

Paul

First let me say that I agree with AK's suggested responses. Some of the questions are clearly supported by fact and have to be admitted. Others are disputed and so you deny them.

Second, if I understand you, You authorized your contractor to find and hire someone to do the garage doors. Therefore this was a subcontractor and they should have received payment from your contractor. Unless you signed a separate contract for the garage door replacement, you owe the contractor what he wants to bill you for.

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...
2. The Defendant Attorney sent us the prior mentioned Request For Admissions as well as a WORD CD. What are we supposed to do w/ this CD? Please forgive our ignorance, this is all new to us. ...

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What was on the CD? I'm assuming it was the request for admissions, in Word, send as a convenience to you. If you have Word on your computer, you might want to use it to craft a response to the RFA. But, of course, you don't have to.

The plaintiff attorney is taking me, I believe to court next month, in our Trial Denovo filing, from prior Small Claims Court. This attorney has stated my wife and my name on his Admissions questions.

He has questions for both my wife and I. Case reads. Contractor v. Plaintiff and then has both wife and my name. When I called the circuit court they stated that only my name is filed as the defendant. When I called the plaintiff's law firm they stated that they "could not give me legal advise as to who is supposed to be at the court proceedings?

Should my wife and I both be forced to go to this court or only myself? How do we determine who should be at this court matter?

The contractor is still owed about $800.00 as our damaged properties on the roof and in the attic were caused by the plainfiff's employees. The contractor knows about these damages but has refused to repair/replace. We did not want to pay this amount, based on full repairs of over $12,000.00. We would have paid the $800.00 but this was our only leverage.

Any idea what are odds of winning or ? Thank you, take care. Paul

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He has questions for both my wife and I. Case reads. Contractor v. Plaintiff and then has both wife and my name. When I called the circuit court they stated that only my name is filed as the defendant. When I called the plaintiff's law firm they stated that they "could not give me legal advise as to who is supposed to be at the court proceedings?

Should my wife and I both be forced to go to this court or only myself?

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Nobody has to got to the trial. But if neither of you appear you probably will be defaulted and a judgment entered against your. I suggest that both of you go.

Assuming you are not an attorney, you usually would not be allowed to represent your wife at a hearing or trial. So both of you should go.

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Contractor v. Plaintiff

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I assume you mean "[contractor], Plaintiff, v. [your name, your wife's name], Defendants."

My wife & I hired a contractor last year, to replace our dwelling roof, roof plywood, apply bathroom exhaust vents on roof, a ridge vent and vinyl siding on one side of the garage, due to hail damage. The contractor/plaintiff did not charge overhead & profit on any portion of this hail damage job, except for the two garage doors. We paid the full bill, less the amount of $808.06. We did not pay the contractor/plaintiff this amount as his employees scuffed-up our two story shingle roof, damaged two bathroom exhaust vents & failed to close our gable-vents which allowed moisture to form in our attic, winter of 2014. This moisture caused the roof eaves/soffit locations to become blocked as said moisture compressed the cellulose insulation, blocking the soffit, lack of ventilation in our attic. The contractor/plaintiff admitted in an e-mail that his employees failed to close our gable vents, allowing this moisture problem to occur.

The contractor/plaintiff took me to small claims court, in St Louis, MO. he won the sum of $1,828.06 for increased costs of plywood roof decking, goes under the roofing shingles, he claimed that his costs for plywood increased and we should pay the full amount as we did not pay the $808.06. The judge did not allow me to show our evidence or photos. This is why we filed in Trial DeNovo. Note that about half of this $808.06 was overhead and profit that the contractor charged on garage doors, we paid over 90% of the plywood costs incurred. Now the contractor/plaintiff has hired an attorney, we completed/complied with the Request for Admissions, (see Request for Admissions under Other Law, prior submitted). We sent same to plaintiff attorney within 30 day period.

We have photos of roof shingle damages and exhaust fan damages on roof as well as
Repair estimates. Also, photos of attic and estimate for re-adding new insulation in attic as cellulose insulation was flattened by moisture and compressed over the soffit locations, causing lack of ventilation/moisture problems.

I am concerned as the attorney may try and raise doubt, regarding damage estimates and photos. I advised the attorney that I would be happy to show the damages to his client, if he so chooses, plaintiff never physically inspected or repaired. Note that the contractor/plaintiffs supervisor looked in our dwelling attic in month of January, 2014, with our adjuster and noted that they would be happy to block off our gable vents, at that time.

What can we further undertake, to win our case as we are deeply concerned that the attorney will look for ways to make us look weak/look bad, etc. We would be happy to help substantiate our case/claim as best as we can. Note that the attorney for the plaintiff/contractor has already sent us letter in the mail for notice of levy, to freeze our bank account... Please help. Thank you. Paul

Quote:

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... plaintiff never physically inspected or repaired. Note that the contractor/plaintiffs supervisor looked in our dwelling attic in month of January, 2014 ...

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You are contradicting yourself: If plaintiff looked in the attic in January, what do you mean that they never inspected?

Quote:

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... What can we further undertake, to win our case as we are deeply concerned that the attorney will look for ways to make us look weak/look bad, etc. [?]. ...

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That is exactly what trial attorneys are supposed to do. What you can do is to hire an experienced attorney of your own. :)

Looking at the money involved... just pay the man what he's owed... your legal fees will in all likelyhood far exceed the amount in question, and you still might lose, meaning you owe your legal fees, what you originally owed him (maybe even interest too), AND possibly even HIS legal fees too. You lost once already...your odds of losing again are far higher than those of winning.

Please don't start a new question over the same issue. I have merged your questions. Any further follow-up should be posted to this thread.

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Originally Posted by AK lawyer

You are contradicting yourself: If plaintiff looked in the attic in January, what do you mean that they never inspected?



That is exactly what trial attorneys are supposed to do. What you can do is to hire an experienced attorney of your own. :)

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The contractor's supervisor inspected the moisture/water damages in our dwelling attic but never inspected the roof damages. Please note that this was in the month of January, 2014, harsh winter... We do not have the funds to hire an attorney. Also, the small claims judge did not allow me the opportunity to state our case, this is why I filed for trial denovo... The plaintiff/contractor was apparently looking for a way to increase his opportunity, since we did not pay the last $800.00 of invoice, until the contractor repaired the employee caused roof damages. He, the contractor stated on his small claims case that I/we owed him for the plywood on our roof at a prior discounted rate, now he wanted the retail rate, never found this in his contract. Thus, the judge allowed him an additional $1,000.00 or total judgement of $1,800.00. We have advised both the contractor and his attorney the opportunity to inspect the damages, in order to determine that they are related to the roof replacement, but to no avail.
We have photos and estimates...

We deducted $800.00 off the roof. How can the contractor/plaintiff determine that the amount we withheld was purposely deducted from the contractor's roof plywood? Appears to his advantage...

Please advise your thoughts as the case is tomorrow @ 1:30pm, cst.

Thank you. Paul

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Originally Posted by ScottGem

Please don't start a new question over the same issue. I have merged your questions. Any further follow-up should be posted to this thread.

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Ok, sorry, thank you. Paul

Quote:

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... the contractor repaired the employee caused roof damages. He, the contractor stated on his small claims case that I/we owed him for the plywood on our roof at a prior discounted rate, now he wanted the retail rate, never found this in his contract. ...

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If, as you now seem to be saying, the roof damage was contractor-employee-caused, the contractor isn't entitled to any of the cost of repair, either wholesale or retail.

And, again, whether the contractor wants to inspect is up to the contractor. I fail to see why you think inspection is important. Presumably you will be able to prove your claim that the damages are employee-caused.

Finally, damages to the plywood seems to be different from what you were writing about before: moisture problems resulting from improper ventilation. You had better be ready to present a coherent case tomorrow or you may well loose again.