Unless it is VERY Small Claims, I’d say you have no case that I can see.
I am a lawyer, and yes, you have a case, but not for small claims. You’d want to sue in itsy bitsy, teeny weeny, microscopic claims court.
Either that or sue UncleBill for defamation.
Ack!! What happened to my post??? I’ll try to recreate it. sigh
Last fall my van was towed from our parking space twice by the towing company contracted by the homeowners association of the townhouse development I live in. See, the van had expired registration stickers. I’d talked to Mike at the property management company and gotten permission to have it there for 30 days since at the time we were living off my husband’s severance and the van needed about $400 worth of work before it would pass inspection. The only people authorized to have a vehicle towed from its own spot are the property management company people.
The first time it happened, we paid $75 to get the van. The second time we called the property management company and complained. They called the towing company and had the van towed back and we weren’t charged.
The towing company said that both times it was a man on the phone claiming to be Mike (from the property management company)… the second time, they had the number of who had called. It was my neighbors’ number.
Those particular neighbors have a history of not liking us. Last summer there was a nasty note left on our door, written on the back of a piece of mail addressed to them. I’ve repeatedly heard them saying nasty things about us while standing in front of our house.
Anyway, they are moving and so I went over to ask them to pay the $75 for the towing bill. He refused. He said I couldn’t prove it was him. I asked him why he would have wanted to tow my van in the first place, and he went on to say how ‘everyone’ was angry about my van blah blah blah… basically defending the concept of having it towed.
Well I told him that I was going to take him to small claims court, and now I’m looking into doing that. I have never sued anyone… I don’t know how much proof I need.
Do I have a case?
If you’re in America, definitely.
Every American has a case. 
If you are suing to recover the $75 bucks from the first towing, you may have problems proving it. Although you may be able to get him for the second one (evidentiary issues aside), because the company had the number of the person who called, you don’t have that for the first one. Proving it was your neighbor the first time is much tougher.
You can always file it, hope the neighbors don’t show, and get a default judgment against them. But what do I know.
we weren’t charged for the second one
Screw small-claims court. If your neighbor lied to the towing company to have your van removed, why wouldn’t you call the police? And make sure to show the cops the neighbor’s note.
Not sure what the police could do, especially since it was around September/October that it happened.
You know, $75 bucks is not all that much nowadays, but it seems like you are seeking visceral satisfaction of getting back at the evil neighbor. You could probably invoke some grief unto him by just sending letters of demand for the money, culminating with the threat of court. Send a series of letters, each progressively more serious.
No one like getting these, and who knows, he may even pay back. Demand extra fees for time lost or phone bills or something like that. Have fun.
call the police on the non-emergency number and ask. You don’t have to give any names (though of course they’ll know who YOU are).
If you’re in an overcrowded, underpoliced urban jungle, they’ll probably blow you off. But maybe a cop will knock on your neighbor’s door, ask a few questions, and provide you with a little satisfaction.
Personally, I don’t think a lawsuit is worthwhile for the money involved.
Insist the property manager implement some kind of security arrangement with the towing company. A password or something to verify a legitimate call. I don’t think it’s out of line to ask for the homeowner’s association to reimburse you at the next meeting.
Ooh, ooh, how about trying to get the homeowners assoc. to levy a special assessment/fine against the neighbor for vio;ating the homeowners agreement?
$75 would pay some bills. We don’t evecn have enough to pay our mortgage this month.
The HOA isn’t going to reimburse us.
They have already changed towing companies and implemented a password, several months ago.
First of all, Small Claims isn’t free, you have to pay a fee. Unless you meet income requirements, then it might be free. ALso, I had to write a letter to the people asking for the money first & they have to say no. Then I could file.
You can watch Judge Brown, Judy, People’s Court, Texas Justice etc etc to see what Small Claims is about. Maybe you can even get on tv, which would be cool.
I have read all of the rules from the virginia state courts homepage. It costs $17 to file.
Opal, I am a lawyer, but not in your state… (insert standard disclaimer 
) Anyway, I don’t think you’ll be able to meet your burden of proof…despite the fact that it sounds like the neighbor did it. You would, most liekly, have to get someone from the towing company to testify re the phone number. That alone will be a pain in the ass…
I can’t tell you how many small claims suits I’ve defended where it’s pretty clear that the Plaintiff is telling the truth, but just can’t bring in enough evidence.
It sucks.
Sorry Opal.
Opal, I am a lawyer, but not in your state… (insert standard disclaimer ) Anyway, I don’t think you’ll be able to meet your burden of proof…despite the fact that it sounds like the neighbor did it. You would, most liekly, have to get someone from the towing company to testify re the phone number. That alone will be a pain in the ass…
I can’t tell you how many small claims suits I’ve defended where it’s pretty clear that the Plaintiff is telling the truth, but just can’t bring in enough evidence.
It sucks.
Sorry Opal.
would it be possible to subpoena the neighbor’s phone records to see if they made a call to the towing company on that day?
I’m not giving legal advice here but I question whether your neighbor actually did anything wrong in a legal sense. They are jerks who called the tow truck because they didn’t like you, but it doesn’t sound like they breached any duty they owed to you.
Sure, only the property management company is supposed to call, but your neighbors still probably don’t owe a duty to the PM company or to the towing company. The people who screwed up are the towing company employees. They weren’t supposed to tow you without the PM company’s OK.
I’m basing this on what you wrote in your second-first post, so maybe I’m missing something. But it looks to me like it’s really the towing company that screwed up.
Well, I guess all that is true if you were suing for negligence (where a duty must be owed and breached)…I’m sure you can figure something else out since it was an inentional deceptive act, but Zoff may be right about you having a negilgence action against the towing company.
I don’t know about small claims in Virgina, but any sort of discovery is frowned upon in the 2 states I’m licensed in. Also, in my experience and in my state, a subpoena in a small claims action is laughable and it’s hard enough to get phone records in BIG cases.
I don’t know whether you can subpoena private phone records of a small claims case. But, even if you can it’s going to cost you. You will also have the filing fee in addition to expenses for getting together whatever other evidence you can find.
I think what the attorneys are saying is that you will have quite a sum tied up in bringing the case and getting evidence and you might lose.
It is probably much wiser to forget this and start trying to find a way to make some money.
I need to put down the crack pipe. The first time I read your story I completely missed the part about your neighbor claiming to be from the Property Management company. That quite possibly changes things. They lied to cause you a harm. You might want to go for it.
I’ll repeat my disclaimer that I’m not giving legal advice and have no experience in Small Claims Court. But a judge might look askance at you little lying neighbors. You should get a letter or affidavit from the towing company stating that the caller ID showed your neighbor’s number. If they’re unwilling to do it, you are going to have problems proving it.