Help..bad Boat Swap

[JMOOSEBABE14]

We trading boat with a dishonest individual.. no money was exchanged ,only a verbal agreement to trade equally boats. He presented this boat with no problems, when he had already taken it to a mechanic that told him it was unsafe and would not even service it. Days later he trading with us, for our perfectly running boat.. We also took the boat to our mechanic, which ironically was the same one he had taken it to. We are wondering if we can do anything about this, considering he intentially withheld this info from us, which could have caused serious injuries. could we go to small claims court to recover damages, since we cant demand our boat back. We have already paid close to 400 dollars out, however fixing it will be impossible.

 

[NYClex]

if he expressly represented to you that the boat was fit and you can prove that he knew that it was not, and you justifiably relied on his representation, you might have a case of either breach of express warranty or fraudulent misrepresentation. If money damages are inadequate you might even have a case for demanding back your boat.

Depending on the value involved it might be worth consulting an attorney.