Construction company took my money and ghosted.

[heyarnold]

Jurisdiction

Pennsylvania

a small construction company took my $5K and ghosted me. I took them to small claims court and won the case. I do not know how to get my money back.

participants:

Me,
James LASTNAME, J & M construction
Michael LASTNAME

James and Michael are married.

Here is the paper I got from the court.

 

[adjusterjack]

Did you "win" the case or did you just get a default judgment when they didn't show up to court?

 

[welkin]

If you Google How to collect a judgment in Pennsylvania you will find many articles on exactly what to do.

 

[flyingron]

Did you "win" the case or did you just get a default judgment when they didn't show up to court?

Says default judgement.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Did you "win" the case or did you just get a default judgment when they didn't show up to court?

The judgment clearly states it is a default judgmment. That is still enforceable like any other judgment. The only difference is that depending on why the defendant failed to appear it may be possible for the defendant to get the default set aside and get a new trial date.

 

[Tax Counsel]

I do not know how to get my money back.

PA is a state in which married couples own most property by tenancy by the entirety (TBE). You cannot attach TBE property for the debt of just one spouse. If, as you post suggests, your judgment is against both the husband and wife then that won't pose you a problem in collecting. If you know where they do their banking, I'd suggest your first step would be to get the court order to garnish the bank account for your money. That's the easiest and least costly way to get paid.

 

[adjusterjack]

I missed the part about the default judgment, but I figured it was anyway.

Which doesn't bode well for heyarnold.

 

[flyingron]

Actually, the losing party (default or otherwise) has 30 days from the date the judgement is filed to appeal. MDCs aren't courts of record so the thing either goes to an arbitration hearing or to Common Please de novo.

 

[Tax Counsel]

Actually, the losing party (default or otherwise) has 30 days from the date the judgement is filed to appeal. MDCs aren't courts of record so the thing either goes to an arbitration hearing or to Common Please de novo.

The losing party here (the defendant) is well past that 30 days. The judgment was entered in July of last year.

And beware the infamous auto-correct: it is, of course, the Court of Common Pleas, which I suspect you know. My experience is that auto correct functions always want to add the letter e to the end thinking it's a mistake unless the auto correct program you're using one that is designed for legal work or is one that you can train not to correct certain terms you use a lot that aren't in its standard dictionary. You sometimes have to have a sharp eye to detect the auto correct's well meaning attempts to help you that turn out wrong.

 

[flyingron]

At least it didn't make it common fleas.

 

[Tax Counsel]

At least it didn't make it common fleas.

Justice for fleas!