- 16 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00You've got to keep your cats off his lawn.
00:03This is Judy Justice.
00:05She can't be having all this poop in my yard.
00:07He never came and said, I'm having a problem.
00:09Hey, smarty pants, you think I'm stupid?
00:12They're disgusted with it.
00:14Sell your house and move.
00:15You can have a million cats.
00:36Jean Galliano is suing her neighbor, Maurice Johnson, for property damage, trespassing,
00:43and harassment.
00:45Court come to order.
00:46All rise.
00:48Have a seat, please.
00:51Justice case 4011, Galliano versus Johnson.
00:54You're welcome.
00:56Ms. Galliano, you inherited a house from whom?
01:00From my father.
01:01And in what year did you inherit the house from him?
01:032005.
01:04And the defendant bought his home, which is next door to your home, in what year?
01:09I guess it was about four years ago or five.
01:12I'm not exactly sure.
01:13When, sir?
01:1312, 18, 19.
01:14And the problem that exists between the two of you, because I have a claim and a counterclaim,
01:19has to do with the number of cats that you have on your property.
01:23Yes, ma'am.
01:24Who else lives in your home with you?
01:25I live alone, ma'am.
01:27With how many cats indoors?
01:29Two indoors.
01:30How many outdoors?
01:31Nine.
01:32Do you ever have more than nine?
01:33There are other cats in the neighborhood, but they don't belong to me, or they don't belong
01:36to the colony, I'm going to say, because none of them actually belong to me.
01:39They're registered, the owner, as Animal Control Philadelphia.
01:43So whatever other cats that are around, you have 11.
01:48I have 11, totally, with the two in the house, yes.
01:50And the 11 cats that you have are all tagged, and they all have collars, and they've all
01:55had their rabies shots.
02:20That's correct.
02:21Well, then each one of them has to be collared.
02:24Ma'am, I have the animal control papers here about all the cats that have been treated and
02:28released by Animal Control.
02:29I'm a registered cat caretaker with Animal Control.
02:31That's not what I asked you.
02:32The cats can't be collared, ma'am, because they're feral and you can't touch them.
02:38Ms. Galliano, you said you had, let me...
02:42These are not my cats.
02:43These are feral cats, ma'am.
02:45The cats inside are mine.
02:46The cats outside belong to the...
02:48Do you have...
02:49Put it down.
02:50I'm sorry, ma'am.
02:50Yes.
02:51Do you have housing for the outside cats on your property?
02:57I did have...
02:57Yes, ma'am.
02:58That's a yes.
02:59I had housing.
03:00Just a minute.
03:01That's a yes.
03:03You had housing for how many cats on your property outside of your home?
03:09Nine.
03:10The ones that you have outdoors, do you also feed them in addition to providing them with shelter?
03:16I did, yes.
03:16I do, ma'am.
03:17What do you mean?
03:18You did or you do?
03:18I do feed them, yes.
03:19So, you do.
03:20Do you feed any other cats from the neighborhood other than the 11 that belong to you?
03:26No.
03:26Now, your complaint is that Mr. Johnson damaged some of your outside cat houses...
03:35Yes.
03:35...and attempted to dig up a tree and has been harassing you about your cats.
03:40Yes.
03:41Do the two indoor cats ever go outside?
03:43Never.
03:44What the defendant says then is that your at least nine outdoor cats have been creating
03:49havoc for his family because they use the outside as a bathroom and you have children.
03:56Yes, a four...
03:57How old are your children?
03:58A four-year-old that would be five.
03:59They can't play outside because of all the feces that are around from these cats that you feed.
04:05So, we have a problem.
04:06Yes, ma'am.
04:07And we have a problem about how to be an animal lover and a good neighbor at the same time.
04:13You can understand.
04:14I understand the problem.
04:14You understand that it's disgusting.
04:16I understand the problem and I'm working with animal control.
04:19Justice, I don't care who you're working with.
04:21Okay, yes.
04:22You understand the problem.
04:23Yes.
04:24The problem is you love animals and you want to be able to take care of them.
04:28It's not their fault that they were born.
04:29They're around.
04:30You want to feed them.
04:31You want to provide them a little place to hide from bad weather.
04:34Well, that's fine.
04:35But as soon as your passion starts to impact somebody else, it becomes a community problem.
04:41May I say something, ma'am?
04:42Just a second.
04:43Does anything that I say sound uncivilized to you, unneighborly to you?
04:50Anything?
04:51No, it didn't sound...
04:52No.
04:52It doesn't sound wrong.
04:53It doesn't.
04:54In my defense, I want to say that Maurice has never come to me or had any conversation to me
04:59about the problem.
05:00I clean up after the cats.
05:01I rake the lawns.
05:02I close things down.
05:04I sweep.
05:04If he would have said to me, I'm having a problem, the first thing he did was come and tear
05:08up.
05:09The first thing he did was tear up the whole place.
05:12He never had a conversation with me.
05:14Just a second.
05:15So if your complaint is that he didn't put you on notice...
05:21Right.
05:21...that what you were doing on your property was impacting what was on his property,
05:27I agree with you.
05:28He should have said, I'm having a problem.
05:30Yes.
05:31Did you ever tell her you were having a problem?
05:33Yes, I did.
05:33No.
05:34Tell me the first time.
05:35The first time was just me telling her about the cats along the lines of what she was saying.
05:40No, no, no.
05:41Not along the lines.
05:42Tell me where.
05:42How we don't want the cats on our property, that I got a newborn at the time, and that as
05:48she get older,
05:49eventually we want to enjoy our front lawn.
05:51The second time is while I'm mowing my lawn, I don't even believe I was doing it, but to imagine
05:58all the cat feces and stuff, and I'm trying to mow my lawn, and all it does is just stir
06:03up all the cat poop and make it a dust fill.
06:06So, when that was happening, I contacted L&I.
06:09What is that?
06:10That's the people that are like telling health and bored or something that she can't be having all this poop
06:15in my yard, and they ordered her to get the poop out of my yard every day, or she'll be
06:19fine.
06:20So, she was starting to, as she stated, starting to remove the poop, but can you imagine, oh, she's going
06:26to pick up every piece in your yard, somebody picking poop out your yard, not to mention what she didn't
06:30mention, that the first part.
06:32Justice, let's stop there.
06:33When you were contacted, and you did say earlier that you started raking up the lawn, that means his lawn
06:40and yours.
06:41Yes, ma'am.
06:42Which means you were trespassing on his property.
06:45Wait, they asked me to do that.
06:46Which means you were trespassing.
06:47I had permission, they asked me to do that.
06:49You've got to keep your cats off his lawn.
06:52They're not my cats, they're feral cats.
06:54No, madam, no, madam.
06:58That's not true.
07:02You're not paying attention.
07:03You've got this thing in your head.
07:05It's not his problem.
07:06Is he allowed to come on my property and just break things up?
07:10Can he talk to me?
07:11Is he?
07:11Yes, he has.
07:12Is he?
07:12Can you show the video?
07:13I have video proof.
07:14Can we show the video?
07:15Oh, I'm going to absolutely look at the video.
07:27Jean Galliano claims her neighbor, Maurice Johnson, trespassed and destroyed her cat shelters.
07:34Maurice is countersuing for fencing costs and property damage.
07:38Now, feral cats are cats that don't belong to you.
07:42They're wild.
07:42I asked you at the beginning of this case, how many cats do you have?
07:47You said two indoors and nine outdoors and you maintain shelters for them and you feed them.
07:55That's not a feral cat.
07:57Those are cats that you own.
07:59And if you feed them in these makeshift shelters, which you're going to show me a picture of.
08:04Yes, I am.
08:05That means that other cats from the neighborhood may drop by to have a morsel.
08:11Now, how do I know that?
08:12I don't know cats all that well, although I've had cats in the past.
08:16But I do have a duck pond and we have ducks that live on the pond.
08:21Our ducks don't fly.
08:23They sit there.
08:25They don't fly.
08:26Migrant ducks come by and they come by for meals.
08:30And they invade the pond, which is a relatively small pond.
08:35But because they invade the pond, they fill the pond with duck poop.
08:42And so I, instead of having somebody come once a month to take care of the pond
08:47and clean it up because I have five ducks, I have to have somebody twice a week to come
08:53and clean out the pond because of all these flying over ducks that stop for meals.
08:59I understand the problem.
09:00Well, that's what your cats are.
09:02I understand the problem, Ann. I've been working with animal control to get the cats on to,
09:06I've contacted every shelter, every sanctuary,
09:08every working cat program in the area trying to get these cats moved on.
09:12I've moved on a lot of cats.
09:14I've found homes for cats.
09:15I've had cats adopted and I've taken many cats to animal control.
09:20The defendant doesn't care.
09:22I understand that.
09:23And if I were the defendant, I wouldn't care either.
09:27I wouldn't care what you've tried to do.
09:29But does it merit him?
09:30Does it merit him doing this to my property?
09:33Doesn't he, can he talk to me like a human being and say the problem?
09:36Just a second.
09:37Don't you understand the problem?
09:38I understand.
09:38Don't you understand the problem?
09:40I've had neighbors for 20 years.
09:42Don't you?
09:42I've had neighbors for 20 years.
09:44I've never complained to me once.
09:45I've been feeding these cats since 2005.
09:48I've moved a lot of cats on.
09:50That's what the caretaker's program is.
09:52I'm registered.
09:52Just a second.
09:53Put it down.
09:54Listen, as opposed to the rest of the world,
09:56you could be whatever do-gooder you want to be.
09:58You can move a million cats on and off your property.
10:01As soon as your passion becomes somebody else's burden, you have to stop.
10:08I'm trying to stop, ma'am.
10:09Trying to get these cats to move on.
10:14Shoulda, woulda, coulda.
10:14Because otherwise, people get frustrated, especially when the health of their babies are involved.
10:20When their babies want to walk on the front lawn and you have your passion pooping all over their property.
10:26Their patience wanes and they don't care what your good intentions are.
10:30And you may have good intentions.
10:31I give you credit for that.
10:33Sell your house.
10:35Move to some place where you're on two acres of property.
10:38You can have a million cats.
10:40Can't move the cats.
10:41They're feral.
10:42They live there.
10:43They can't move feral cats.
10:44You're not paying attention.
10:45You've got this thing in your head.
10:47It's not his problem.
10:49His passion's not interfering with your piece.
10:51But can he broke up my...
10:53Can he do this?
10:54Is he allowed to come on my property and just break things up?
10:58Can he talk to me?
10:59Is he?
10:59Yes, he has.
11:00Can you show the video?
11:01I have video proof.
11:02Can we show the video?
11:03Oh, I'm going to absolutely look at the video.
11:05Yes, ma'am.
11:06I appreciate that.
11:07Did you trespass on his property?
11:08Only when I was asked to clean up.
11:10You trespassed on his property?
11:12He trespassed on my property.
11:13Okay, now I'm going to take a look at your video.
11:15Okay.
11:20Hey, get close.
11:22Come look at him.
11:24Roach.
11:24Roach is in there.
11:25Shh.
11:25Go on.
11:26Shh.
11:36What are you showing me?
11:37He's banging on wood?
11:37I'm showing him breaking up the cat houses.
11:39This is what it looks like, what it looked like before.
11:42And this is what it looked like after.
11:43I thought that they weren't your cats.
11:45What do you have shelters for if they're not your cats?
11:47Because I'm part of the community caretakers and it's part of the responsibility.
11:51I told you, I don't care what your program is.
11:54You're a citizen of a community and you want to have a passion and keep cats and find homes for
12:00them.
12:00You're a wonderful person.
12:03Five years is too long to try.
12:06Sell your house and move.
12:08Now we're going to get to the defendant's counterclaim.
12:12Tell me in 30 seconds or less what your counterclaim is.
12:15My counterclaim was for her destroying my property.
12:18What?
12:19It was that tree that she's saying was out front.
12:21I paid to have it removed because it was just a tree with a dumpster in front.
12:25May I see it please and tell me just a second.
12:28Oh, sorry about that.
12:29Was the tree, do you have something that indicates that the tree was on your property?
12:35Oh no, I don't have nothing for property line or nothing like that.
12:38I just have everything I paid for.
12:40Hold on.
12:40This is your house.
12:41Yes.
12:42And this?
12:42My daughter.
12:43Your daughter.
12:44It's looking, wishing she could go out there and play.
12:45Just a second.
12:47And this is your front yard?
12:48Yes.
12:49And this is the tree that you're talking about?
12:51Yes.
12:52And no.
12:52Is this the tree that you're talking about?
12:53The tree was.
12:54Shh.
12:54The tree was.
12:55That's either a yes or a no.
12:56Yes.
12:57Yes.
12:57It was planted in the middle and when it grew into, I had it planted 10 years ago
13:01and it went, it was originally on my property but it grew out and then it became on the property
13:05line.
13:06It was on my property for, on the property for 10 years and it got bigger.
13:09Who cares?
13:10But.
13:11It was on his property.
13:12It was on my property too.
13:14It was on the property line.
13:15That's why I didn't make an issue up.
13:16Everything was on the property line that she's speaking of.
13:18I don't understand how this could be on a property line.
13:20It's not.
13:21It is on the property line.
13:23I would like you to give her a pen.
13:26Here's the paper.
13:27I'd like her to show me where she says the property line is on her house and put down property
13:34line.
13:35His, mine.
13:36Well, this is mine.
13:37His, mine.
13:38You can't put it here because.
13:39His, mine.
13:40Don't speak to Kevin.
13:41Whatever.
13:42This is, this is, this is his and this is mine.
13:46Okay.
13:46And I put a new tree.
13:47I took out the cement that they put in here.
13:49Nobody asked you any question.
13:51I asked you about the property line.
13:52There you go.
13:52This is a bad property line here.
13:58Kevin.
14:01So you put M, mine.
14:03So according to you, this is the new tree.
14:06Yes, and that's what I'm.
14:07I didn't ask you about the new tree.
14:10Well, the.
14:10I, hey.
14:12Smarty pants.
14:13You think I'm stupid?
14:14No, I know you're very smart, Judge.
14:15I know you're very smart.
14:19Who sits out here with the cats on the chair?
14:21I sit out there.
14:22It's my patio.
14:22So this leather chair.
14:25It's not leather.
14:25It was just an old, an old living room chair that I put out there.
14:28It was getting, you know.
14:30I just put it out there on the patio.
14:31I feel sorry for you.
14:42Jean Galliano has accused her neighbor, Maurice Johnson, of trespassing and destroying her
14:50cat shelters.
14:51Maurice claims Jean owes for fencing costs and property damage.
14:56So this is the new tree.
14:58Yes.
14:59This is where the old tree was.
15:01No, the old tree was the, the, the, this, this whole, this whole space here.
15:05Where the cement was.
15:06Well, the cement was taken half out.
15:08He cemented up the whole thing.
15:11Where this tree is, he cemented up the whole thing.
15:14And I had the cement removed so I could put the new tree on my side completely.
15:18Then he's allowed to take down his tree.
15:20But he cemented on my property.
15:22I don't know what he did on my property.
15:24I had a picture, a video of her tearing down the concrete that go along when you said the
15:27counterclaim.
15:28I got the picture of her doing it and the video of her doing it.
15:31My wife, uh, uh, saw her doing it.
15:33Ms. Galliano.
15:34Yes, ma'am.
15:35I'm sorry.
15:36You know exactly what I'm saying to you.
15:39You've been getting your way a long time.
15:41These people and probably a lot of your neighbors are fed up with the filth that comes along with your
15:48passion.
15:48They're disgusted with it.
15:50And you acknowledge that your cat went on his property and dumped feces on his property
15:57to the extent that you were ordered to get it off his property.
16:02And it's been an ongoing problem.
16:05How many times, Ms. Galliano, have you been told by authorities that your neighbor,
16:12one or more, is having a problem with your keeping cats?
16:17I've never been told that my neighbor, not even by him, this was him telling me.
16:22Him tearing up the property.
16:24That was his way of telling me.
16:26He never said words to me about it.
16:28I've never had a conversation with this man.
16:31Okay, very good.
16:31Now he said words to you.
16:32Yes.
16:33And now you're in court.
16:35Yes.
16:35And now you're on notice.
16:37Yes.
16:37That he doesn't want your cats on his property.
16:41They're not my cats.
16:42If you see here, they belong to animal control.
16:45Very good.
16:45They animal control and the cats.
16:47You just feed the house.
16:48Just shh.
16:48No.
16:49I got your problem, sir.
16:50These cats have all been treated.
16:51I got your problem, sir.
16:52I've been trying to relieve the situation by taking all these cats.
16:56They're all fixed.
16:57I don't care.
16:59Okay, okay.
17:00I'm doing my best with it.
17:01You're not doing your best.
17:03You do your best.
17:03You sell the house that you didn't buy in the first place.
17:06Go buy a bigger piece of property in some more rural area so you can practice your passion.
17:12You can't allow your passion to become somebody else's burden.
17:15I understand.
17:16That's what you seem to not understand.
17:18I understand the problem.
17:19Well, you don't understand the problem.
17:21You're putting what you consider the best interests of stray cats.
17:25You are asking society to balance that against a family and a child.
17:30And I want to tell you something.
17:32Your cats are not going to win.
17:34Not here.
17:35Okay.
17:35And I like cats.
17:37I wouldn't like cats or somebody else's dog to befoul my property.
17:42And somebody says to me, well, I'm doing a good deed.
17:46I am a real do-gooder.
17:48I want to save these animals.
17:50That's great.
17:51Go do it.
17:52Do it so that it doesn't bother anybody else.
17:54And you don't seem to think that that's important.
17:56I do.
17:57Well, I do and I'm trying.
17:59I mean, you're passive aggressive.
18:01I do care that it's bothering them.
18:03But I've been trying.
18:04But it's five years.
18:05And by the time maybe you get it finished, his daughter is going to be married.
18:10But he has a problem because he hasn't been able to establish to me that other than you
18:15seeing that he removed the tree and that he took down this makeshift shelter that you put
18:20together for your cats that included two boards and two plants.
18:24It wasn't a makeshift shelter.
18:26It was...
18:27I'm going to take out what you gave me.
18:28There should be another picture there, Judge, that I gave you of the bigger shelter.
18:32They were both insulated and made of solid wood.
18:34They had to be perched.
18:35So, who sits out here with the cats on the chair?
18:38I sit out there.
18:39It's my patio.
18:40And that's my property right next to it.
18:43You see no fencing or nothing.
18:44There's row homes in Philadelphia.
18:46So, so this leather chair.
18:48It's not leather.
18:49It was just an old living room chair that I put out there.
18:53I just put it out there on the patio.
18:55Sir, I feel sorry for you.
18:56How much did you pay for your house?
18:57At the time, a quarter million, but it went up in value since then.
19:00Okay.
19:00And you paid nothing for your house.
19:02You inherited it.
19:03Yeah.
19:03Well, that makes a difference.
19:04These people paid a quarter of a million dollars for their house.
19:07They want to live there in peace.
19:08You get 50 cents.
19:10He gets $2,000.
19:12Okay.
19:12Now, now you're on notice.
19:14If you come back here, you're going to get the same answer.
19:16You may go someplace else with somebody and say, well, she can raise them because she's
19:20got a piece of paper that says she can make everybody else's life miserable.
19:24I'm telling you that that is not the way good neighbors and citizens behave to each
19:29other.
19:29They don't take out old living room furniture and put it on their back patio.
19:33Now, you do that and create this mess outside in your back patio because you didn't pay squat
19:39for your house.
19:40You inherited it.
19:41These people work very hard.
19:43Probably both of them work probably at least one job each in order to pay for this house
19:50that they treasure.
19:53And you made your house into a crap hole with cat crap.
19:57So, on your complaint, you get 50 cents.
20:00He gets $2,000.
20:01I hope you learned something.
20:03And if you didn't, then you're as thick as I think you are.
20:05We're done.
20:07Precord, adjourn.
20:10I have compassion for the animals.
20:11I took on their responsibility because I care for them and I wanted to see them live, I guess.
20:18I don't have a problem with cats personally.
20:19I just don't want nine, 10 cats on my property.
20:22You know what I mean?
20:23And leaving feces in the front lawn.
20:25They never really came to me and said what the problem was.
20:28Since I've been doing it for a long time, other neighbors haven't complained.
20:32And so I wasn't aware.
20:33I thought maybe it was an aesthetic problem because he kept breaking up the shelters.
20:37Oh, man.
20:37I'm just excited that we got the victory and that common sense prevailed.
20:41You know what I mean?
20:42Can't let your passion overtake other people's property.
20:44And me and my wife are just happy, man.
20:48That is a me, me, me.
20:50I, I, I.
20:51I am important.
20:53My mission is important.
20:55And you have to defer to my mission because that's imperative.
21:01Has nothing to do with being a good neighbor.
21:03Has nothing to do with being a good citizen.
21:06Has something to do with that lady saying,
21:08I have technically the law on my side.
21:11Maybe, maybe, maybe.
21:12And because I do, I can impose this filth that impedes your ability to enjoy your property
21:22to continue because I'm a do-gooder.
21:25And it's a health hazard as well.
21:27I mean, for a four-year-old child to not be able to go outside and play because of
21:31feral cats that aren't exactly feral, that's a problem.
21:35Right.
21:38Want justice?
21:39Go to judyjustice.tv
21:41Go to judyjustice.tv
21:42Go to judyjustice.tv
21:45Go to judyjustice.tv
21:46Go to judyjustice.tv
21:48Go to judyjustice.tv
21:49Go to judyjustice.tv
21:50Go to judyjustice.tv
21:54Go to judyjustice.tv
21:56Go to judyjustice.tv
21:58Go to judyjustice.tv
21:58Go to judyjustice.tv
21:58Go to judyjustice.tv
21:58Go to judyjustice.tv
22:00Go to judyjustice.tv
22:02Go to judyjustice.tv
22:04Go to judyjustice.tv
Comments