I've been called to jury duty three times in my life. The first time it involved a condo and maintenance fees for the property. I wasn't selected to sit on the jury but it had been an afternoon case and I wasn't going back to work so I stayed after I had been released to hear the case. Unfortunately, because it was so late in the day when it started, they didn't finish that afternoon so I asked one of the jurors to email me the verdict when they were done. I had already formed an opinion about the case and, as it turned out, the jury came to the same conclusion.
The next time I was called I don't actually recall what the case was about. What I remember is that the plaintiff didn't have an attorney. Nor did she speak English. They had an interpreter for her but there seemed to be some communication issues between them and I was dreading being selected for the jury. The defendant had an attorney though and she asked the panel a couple of questions. We were asked if we had ever been to small claims court before. I said I had and I was asked whether I had won or not. I said no. Apparently that was enough to get me eliminated from serving. I say that because the judge said he was going to take the first 6 people who weren't eliminated and I had been number 3 or 4. I was okay that with that.
The third time was today. I've always wanted to serve on a jury but today I was hoping to NOT be selected. So of course I was. And actually, it was an interesting situation involving a landlord / tenant dispute. Neither side had counsel. The landlord was claiming that the tenant wouldn't allow her to inspect the house. She said they hadn't been paying rent and owed for October, November and December. She said that she went by one day and that the kitchen cabinets were outside with the trash. She said they had painted the walls without permission. She said the tenants were verbally abusive to her. This was all told in her opening statement.
The tenant's side was that the landlord showed up one day unannounced and wanted to inspect the house. They scheduled an appointment for her to do so the next day but the landlord never showed up. They admitted to pulling out the cabinets but said they did so because the landlord had had them painted and that there were dead roaches stuck to them. They also admitted to painting the walls but said the landlord liked the color and was okay with it. They said they had always paid their rent but that it was refused in November. They also said the landlord had her friend present himself as a police officer to let the landlord into their home. This was all told in their opening statement.
I should mention that the arrangement between the landlord and the tenant was that the tenant was leasing with the intent to buy the house.
After their opening statements the plaintiff presented a letter she had written that was signed by the defendants. It was two pages long. The defendant admitted to seeing the second page and signing it but denied having ever seen the first page of the letter. The judge asked the plaintiff if she had proof they had seen the first page and she said "it's there!" and that was all she said. The judge ruled that the second page made no sense without the first page so he allowed it as evidence in the case. The first page accused them of violating specific rules allegedly put into place when they moved in (personally, given that it was a lease to buy situation, I'm inclined to believe that page one was created specifically for the case and believe the defendants never saw it) and the second just said she wasn't paying anymore and that they hadn't paid rent.
The judge said she should probably tell us what she was looking to get out of the case and the plaintiff said she wanted them to move out of their house in one week. The judge asked if she was looking for any rent payments and she said no. Then the judge asked the defendants if they could move in one week, they said yes so the judge said they had a deal and closed the case and told us we could leave. The plaintiff then asked if she could ask a question and the judge said "no you may not!" and that was that. The whole thing took less than an hour. In fact, the call time was 10:00 a.m. and I was literally pulling into my driveway at 11:00 a.m. So a short day to be sure!
I really wanted to hear testimony - particularly from the friend who supposedly presented himself as a police officer - but that didn't happen.
But, now I've served on a jury. Now I have a new goal for next time though, I hope attorneys are involved and that we get to the testimony. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment