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00:00They hired you to plan the wedding.
00:02Yes.
00:03They say, we don't want to use your services at all anymore.
00:07This was as a favor for them.
00:09No.
00:09He refused to bring our money back.
00:12He stopped responding.
00:14Show me any document that proves you paid one vendor.
00:20You don't have it, do you?
00:22And he thinks it's funny.
00:23I don't like shady people.
00:25And you are about as shady as they come.
00:27Now, on Tribunal Justice.
00:52Today's case was filed in Corona, California.
00:56Now, it's case number 3068 on the calendar in the matter of Larson Scott v. Moi Hair and Makeup Incorporated.
01:04Thank you, Bert.
01:04You're welcome, Judge.
01:05Prize has been sworn in.
01:06You may be seated.
01:08Let's start with Ms. Larson.
01:09Yes.
01:10And Mr. Scott.
01:11You are engaged.
01:12Yes.
01:13Soon to be newlyweds, not yet wed.
01:15Correct.
01:15And you hired the defendants to plan your wedding.
01:18And you're now suing them because you claim that they double charged you for deposits that you were supposed to
01:25pay to vendors,
01:25like your florist and your photographer.
01:28And you claim that they did not fully reimburse you for the amounts that you overpaid.
01:33You also want the defendants to refund you the amounts that you paid them for their own planning services because
01:39you say they just didn't do the job.
01:41Correct.
01:41And you're suing for $4,500.
01:44Mr. Rangel and Ms. Rojas, you are siblings, and you own the wedding planning company Moi Makeup and Hair.
01:52You claim that you owe the plaintiffs nothing because they were already fully reimbursed.
01:57And you, in fact, also have a countersuit against them.
02:00Correct.
02:01Because you claim that they accused you of fraud.
02:04And you also maintain that Mr. Scott used a gay slur against you.
02:10Absolutely.
02:10And for those reasons, you're countersuing them for $10,000 for lost wages and emotional distress.
02:16Yes.
02:17Let's start with Ms. Larson.
02:18You got engaged of February of last year.
02:22That's right.
02:22And your wedding is planned for May.
02:25Yes.
02:26May of this year.
02:26Yes.
02:27How did you come to learn of the defendant's services?
02:29Through family, through particularly Rob's sister and his nieces.
02:35And Josh came highly recommended.
02:38And I just wanted to clarify for the court, I never worked with they, when you speak of them plural.
02:43It was only ever with Josh.
02:46Thank you for the clarification.
02:48And so the scope of services, Mr. Rangel, you were to plan the wedding, hire the photographer, hire the florist,
02:55get the DJ.
02:57And your fee was to be $3,600?
02:59Yes, Your Honor.
03:00Going back to what they said, we don't own a planning company.
03:04This was as a favor for them.
03:06I'm going to stop you right there.
03:07It was a $3,600 favor, correct?
03:10Correct.
03:10They hired you to plan the wedding.
03:12Yes.
03:12The contract that you submitted was on the letterhead of Moi Makeup and Hair.
03:17And there's a line item for planning and coordinating services by you.
03:21Okay, so I'm moving on.
03:23$3,600 was to be paid to the defendant.
03:27You paid him an $1,800 deposit.
03:29That's correct.
03:30And then there was an additional set of deposits for the florist and the photographer, which was how much?
03:36$4,500 is what you asked for.
03:38$4,500.
03:38We're rounding that up.
03:39It's like $4,551.
03:40Yeah, I think it was like $4,551 and some change.
03:43And when they originally tried to make the payments to you, Mr. Rangel, they paid with a credit card.
03:50The credit card payment didn't go through.
03:51Five times.
03:52So then what did you tell them?
03:53They have to provide the deposit, a different type of payment.
03:56Because you indicated that you were concerned about the vendors not being paid, correct?
04:00Correct.
04:01We don't pay the vendors.
04:02We don't have vendors for the wedding.
04:03Very good point.
04:04So you find that out.
04:05And then what do you do?
04:07I get the phone call from Shelly that Joss is urgently needing money.
04:11And so we used three different credit cards.
04:14One of them finally went through.
04:16But before it goes through, you make another $4,500 set of payments using Zelle.
04:21Correct.
04:22Now let's go to Exhibit 12, because that's when you find out, and this is addressed to your sister,
04:27because you own the platform that processes the credit cards.
04:31And it says that the credit card payment went through, that original payment that you really
04:35wanted to say didn't go through five times.
04:37Now it's gone through.
04:37So now you have the money from the credit card, and you have the Zelle money.
04:42So why did they not get the full amount reimbursed to them between one and three business days?
04:48Oh, that was supposed to be deposited into our account in one to four days.
04:51It wasn't in our account right away.
04:53But the harassment started that same day that I contacted them.
04:57Okay.
04:58Because before we get to your claim of harassment, we're going to talk about how many times they
05:03tried to get you to reimburse them the full amount that was double paid.
05:07In fact, sir, at one point, you tried to contend that there wasn't even a double payment.
05:13You knew that wasn't true, because you'd been advised on the 24th that that first payment
05:17went through.
05:18So you know you have two sets of payments.
05:20So when the money was deposited back into your account, had the vendors been paid?
05:26We were in the process of paying them, yes.
05:28So was the photographer paid?
05:29Yes.
05:30Oh, he was?
05:31You had a conversation with the photographer, and can we put up Exhibit 11?
05:35What is this text message, ma'am, that you submitted into evidence?
05:38It basically was a reach out to them, because we'd never heard from our vendors.
05:42We'd never seen receipt from our vendors.
05:45And yet I was following him on Instagram, and so we messaged him, and he was able to clearly
05:51communicate that he was never paid.
05:54You spoke to the photographer.
05:55Had the photographer been paid?
05:57No, he had not.
05:58I know that on August 6th, they paid you back $2,000 of the $4,500.
06:05Correct.
06:05So how many times did you try to get the rest of the money back?
06:08Multiple times.
06:09Multiple times.
06:10Call, text, supposed to have arranged meetings, didn't show.
06:13Yeah, he was in school.
06:14He was sleeping.
06:15He was in Vegas.
06:17Why did it take you so long to refund the second payment?
06:22Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
06:24You say that you sent them two Zelle transactions.
06:27I saw no evidence whatsoever of a $2,500 Zelle transaction.
06:31Where's that?
06:32I don't think there's a second payment.
06:33There is no second payment.
06:34And so you swore out an answer in this court, which was blatantly untrue.
06:43Robert Scott and Shelley Larson are suing Josue Rangel and his sister, Metzli Rojas, for $4,500
06:48after they hired Josue to plan their wedding, then got double charged.
06:53But Josue claims he refunded the extra payment, and he's countersuing for $10,000 for emotional distress.
06:59How many times did you try to get the rest of the money back?
07:02Multiple times.
07:03Multiple times.
07:04Call, text, supposed to have arranged meetings, didn't show.
07:07Yeah, he was in school.
07:08He was sleeping.
07:09He was in Vegas.
07:11Why did it take you so long to refund the second payment?
07:15Because he's insisted on meeting me and giving him cash, and I was not going to give him cash because
07:19I need to track this.
07:20Wasn't he requesting Zelle?
07:22He wanted to be refunded the same way he paid you.
07:25Then he should have contacted his credit card like he did, and he got his refund back through his credit
07:28card.
07:28But when you go to Target and you're going to return something at Target, it goes back to your same
07:33payment format.
07:35Maybe you're confused about the facts.
07:37He used a credit card to pay you.
07:39That credit card amount cleared.
07:41And you can dispute those.
07:42But before they cleared, they also paid you a second set of monies for the vendors, and I know at
07:48least one vendor wasn't paid.
07:49So now we're at the point of time where you've refunded $2,000 of the overpayment, but not the balance,
07:55which I find really curious because in your answer and in your countersuit, you say that you sent them two
08:01Zelle transactions for $2,500 and $2,000.
08:05Now, I saw no evidence whatsoever of a $2,500 Zelle transaction.
08:09Where's that?
08:11I don't think there's a second payment.
08:12There is no second payment, and so you swore out an answer in this court, which was blatantly untrue.
08:17I also want to ask you about your countersuit.
08:20You maintain that because they contested the bank payment, which you did ultimately.
08:25Correct.
08:25Now, why did you do that?
08:26Because he refused to bring our money back.
08:29He stopped responding.
08:31He stopped acting like our coordinator.
08:33He started getting belligerent.
08:35He refused to repay you.
08:37That's right.
08:37So then you canceled the entire transaction.
08:39I called Chase and canceled it, yes.
08:41So there are two elements that are really the heart of your countersuit.
08:45One is you claim that their communications with your bank contesting that payment resulted in your not being able to
08:53process credit cards.
08:54But there was some suggestion that there had been multiple chargebacks.
08:57How do I know that they were the only disgruntled consumers of yours?
09:01Because the bank contacted us and let us know the information from the vendor or the person who was trying
09:07to make those transactions, and they gave us Robert Scott.
09:09And as you sit here in court today, you want us to believe that you had no other disgruntled clients,
09:15no other chargebacks?
09:16No.
09:16No.
09:17All righty then, Judge DiMango.
09:18They actually got that money back from Chase.
09:20So if you add that balance, plus what I gave him, $2,000 via Zelle, so I don't understand why
09:26they wanted me to give them back everything he had cashed.
09:27Judge DiMango, whenever you're ready.
09:28They wanted to get double pay back.
09:30That's what they were trying to do.
09:32Sir, you are not a wedding planner.
09:34You're just somebody who helps.
09:36Correct.
09:37Were you told that he was not a wedding planner?
09:39Just curious.
09:40He came highly recommended from family that he does this on the side.
09:44Okay.
09:44And in fact, when I spoke to him for the very first time on the phone, he told me that
09:49he does this on a side.
09:50Okay.
09:51Nobody's disputing that, but he does not have a business.
09:53You take a certain amount of money for your services, which were, I believe, $3,600.
09:59Correct.
09:59With that, you were going to handle all of these things.
10:02Florist, music, lighting, that's what a wedding planner does.
10:05Now, the florist was a $2,000 deposit.
10:08You have something in here from a florist which says, we only need $500 as a deposit down.
10:13Did you ever take $2,000 specifically that you say you were giving over to the florist, even though the
10:19florist only asked for $500?
10:20No, because they didn't want to go forward with that florist.
10:22They went with a different florist because they wanted a cheaper florist.
10:25They thought it was too high.
10:26Did you have another florist that you contracted with or dealt with?
10:29I do, but she was just someone who, again, like myself, who's not a professional florist.
10:34She just does it on the side.
10:35So you were going with somebody who...
10:36They wanted to go with someone less effective.
10:37How does somebody, what, do they go in their garden and start cutting things?
10:40I mean, how does somebody who's not a florist...
10:41They still go in, you know, they do their work professionally, but...
10:45Were you aware of this?
10:46No.
10:47Yes, they were.
10:48Wait.
10:48You don't know what they were aware of and they weren't.
10:50So he's telling us that you didn't like who he had because they wanted too much money.
10:54He went with somebody else.
10:55It's not true.
10:55You're saying he told you that?
10:57Did you know that?
10:58Yes or no?
10:58No.
10:59It's a simple question.
10:59What about the photographer?
11:01Because you did tell them that he wanted $1,000.
11:05Would that be correct?
11:06He did want $1,000, but he also didn't want to work with them because he started contacting them on
11:10their own.
11:10No, that's not true.
11:11Sir, I'm going to clear it up for you and for them.
11:14The papers here is, this is Shelly, right?
11:16It's my account, yes.
11:17Yeah, Ms. Shelly, he says he did talk to you about it.
11:21He said he would pay the deposit, but right now he hasn't.
11:24That's on August 2nd.
11:25You then say, Shelly, if there's no deposit, are we booked?
11:29Yeah.
11:30He never got any money.
11:35Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
11:37You were going to lose all of these vendors.
11:39You would have shown up for your date and none of the people, none of them, were going to show
11:44up.
11:44Listen to me, it's only going to get worse for you.
11:46That's fine.
11:47Oh!
11:54Robert Scott and Shelly Larson say Josue Rangel and his sister Metzli Rojas promised to refund a $4,500 overpayment
12:01for planning their wedding.
12:02But Josue says they were refunded, and Robert's harassment caused him emotional distress.
12:07So he's countersuing for $10,000.
12:11We agree you got the credit card payment.
12:12We agree you gave him $2,000 and then $2,500 in Zelle payments.
12:17And now this $4,500 from the credit card that's out there.
12:20So that means now that you have close to $9,000 of their money.
12:25They say to you, give us some of that money back because you're not entitled to all of it, at
12:29least at this point in time.
12:31So now you send them back $2,000.
12:35$2,000.
12:35$2,000.
12:35$2,000.
12:36That's what they got back through the chase.
12:37They're suing you for that $2,500 that admittedly you never gave them.
12:45I don't know what your excuse is for that.
12:47And as a result of this cancellation, they say, we don't want to use your services at all anymore.
12:54But you say, all of this that you did to me, the cancellation has destroyed me.
12:59And I just want to point one thing out before I pass it.
13:01This is from Chase, because your account is susceptible to a high chargeback or dispute rate.
13:08And they've put their balances into a reserve.
13:11And that's why, not because of their action, did you have a problem with the bank.
13:15Your Honor, that was our only credit card payment client.
13:18I don't know what your other business is, but I do know what the bank note did say to us.
13:22Judge Levy?
13:23Mr. Rangel, let's go to the contract.
13:26It's your contract.
13:26You were the one who put it together, correct?
13:28Correct.
13:29What was the date that the contract was signed?
13:31I don't recall.
13:33Oh, my goodness.
13:34June 21st is when the contract was signed, right?
13:38Correct.
13:38Good.
13:39Now, you kept saying it was a $3,600 fee for yourself, right?
13:44Correct.
13:44Look at your contract.
13:46Planning and coordinating services.
13:48What's the rate that you charged?
13:50Look.
13:51I know how much I charge.
13:52How much was it?
13:55$3,500.
13:56Not $3,600, right?
13:59Correct.
14:00And, ma'am, you actually sent a text when he demanded the deposit.
14:03Yes.
14:04And you actually sent him $1,750, right?
14:06Yes.
14:07Because what's $1,750 times two?
14:10$3,500.
14:11Yes.
14:11But he then insisted on extra money that was not included in the contract.
14:15And you gave that to him via Zelle, right?
14:17That's why the payments weren't just two payments for $3,500 and $1,000.
14:22They were additional little payments because he was demanding more money.
14:25Absolutely.
14:26Your contract, sir, the second page of your contract, you have photography, $3,500.
14:32That's what you put down on June 21st, 2024, correct?
14:36Correct.
14:37And the deposit, you said, was $1,000.
14:39Yes.
14:40Right.
14:40The one at the bigger package.
14:41The bigger package requires a bigger deposit.
14:43Show me, show me any document that you have that shows you paid that photographer $1,000 on June 21st,
14:522024, say to August 6th, 2024.
14:55Show me a document or tell me you don't have one.
14:59I don't have one.
15:00We're going to move on.
15:01Weren't you the one, though, Mr. Rangel, to say to Judge Acker, if we don't pay the vendors and lock
15:07them in, we're not going to have their date for the wedding.
15:09We don't.
15:10Show me any document that proves you paid one vendor to lock in the date.
15:17You don't have it, do you?
15:19No.
15:19Good.
15:20You were right about him the whole time.
15:22No.
15:22You were going to lose all of these vendors.
15:25You would have shown up for your date, and none of the people, none of them, were going to show
15:29up.
15:29That's why I got fired.
15:30And he thinks it's funny.
15:31Listen to me.
15:32It's only going to get worse for you.
15:33That's fine.
15:36I don't like shady people, and you are about as shady as they come.
15:40I want you to read to me your notes of his contract where it says, Mr. Scott aggressively demanded.
15:46I don't think you were there when he called me and hit me.
15:49Read it.
15:49You ain't calling me a racial slurist.
15:51Stop.
15:51You know what?
15:51I'm going to walk out of this, and I'm not going to be part of this because you're not listening
15:54to what he did to me.
15:55Be my guest.
15:56There goes your counterclaim.
15:58That's fine.
15:58Take off.
16:00Ma'am, I'm going to start with you now.
16:03The contract.
16:04Mentally.
16:05Let's go.
16:06Nice.
16:07He would have ruined your wedding.
16:10Ruined it.
16:12This is what he put in the notes of his contract.
16:15Mr. Scott aggressively demanded a refund, and we started the process via Zelle and sent $2,000.
16:22Right.
16:22And he promised, at least according to his own notes, to give you the remaining $2,500 the next day.
16:29But he never sent the money.
16:32What did you need that cash for?
16:34Honestly?
16:35No, don't be honest.
16:36Yeah.
16:37What did you tell him?
16:38You needed it for your mortgage.
16:39It's my mortgage.
16:40Yes.
16:40Pay my wedding.
16:41Yeah.
16:42Yeah.
16:42You did the right thing by coming here.
16:44And thank you for allowing us to adjudicate the case for you.
16:47Thank you so much.
16:47I have nothing further.
16:49Nor do I.
16:49Don't be sad.
16:51No, I'm happy.
16:52I'm marrying my best friend.
16:53It's just so upsetting because of the family connection and that I believed in him until I had the proof
17:00that...
17:03I think we'll handle it.
17:04I don't have anything further.
17:05We are going to retire to deliberate at this time.
17:07Thank you, Will.
17:08Thank you so much.
17:09Court now stands in recess.
17:11This case will be recalled.
17:12Parties are excused.
17:22Based on the evidence in this case, I really thought it was only just a matter of time before that
17:26defendant was going to find himself unable to restrain himself.
17:30He gave them excuse after excuse for not giving them the full reimbursement.
17:36He got all of their money on July 24th.
17:38So by July 24th, he's been double paid.
17:41He gives them back $2,000.
17:43He came to court and lied in his answer and said that he'd given them back $2,500.
17:48We didn't explore the full breadth of his counterclaim, but that's really on him.
17:53I'll note for the record that the gay slur he was complaining of, he submitted evidence that Mr. Scott called
17:59him a bitch.
17:59Not the nicest thing to say, but certainly under these circumstances, nothing that I think warrants a $10,000 counterclaim
18:06or any counterclaim in any amount.
18:08So I have no problem dismissing the countersuit and awarding the plaintiffs everything they're asking for because they don't just
18:15want the rest of those deposits back.
18:17They want to be compensated for what they paid him for his fees.
18:20So I think they should get that back, too.
18:22I agree.
18:23In fact, on one of the pages, he writes, this is after they're trying to get the money back from
18:28him, stop harassing me.
18:29Why is it that people who owe people money continuously think that they're the ones being harassed when their money
18:35should be forthcoming?
18:36It was their wedding.
18:37They were trying to do the right thing and make the payments.
18:39And clearly, they were absolutely right to stop.
18:42He did nothing even to move forward with any of the vendors.
18:45They're completely entitled to the full money back.
18:48As to his counterclaim, I mean, it was pretty clear that the bank canceled him because he had a high
18:55risk of having these types of things occur.
18:58So to blame them for any loss of business, there's no cause of action against them for that.
19:03And I didn't see any racial slurs.
19:05On August 6th, the defendant sent a text to the plaintiff and said, hi, Rob, I sent you $2,000,
19:13which he did via Zell.
19:15He says, I will send you the balance in the next 24 hours.
19:19And he never did.
19:20The defendant was a scammer.
19:21And the plaintiffs, quite frankly, are lucky that they nipped this in the bud when they did.
19:26Because if they stuck with him, come May, they'd have shown up at the wedding.
19:30There'd have been no photographer.
19:31There'd have been no flowers.
19:32There'd have been no DJ.
19:33No nothing.
19:34And as far as him walking out of the courtroom, a guilty mind needs no accuser.
19:40I agree with all of you.
19:41Well, I want to say one thing based on what you just said.
19:43There's a text in here where Mr. Scott says, so are you going to still do our wedding?
19:48And I wrote down underneath it, are you crazy?
19:51What are you?
19:52Are you kidding me?
19:52Why would he even ask if he was going to still do it?
19:55At that point, they believed in this guy.
19:57Fortunately, they cut that belief short.
20:00I think we're unanimous.
20:05Court is back in session.
20:07Parties are reminded you're still under oath.
20:09Thank you, Bert.
20:10We've deliberated and we've reached a unanimous verdict.
20:13The evidence was clear that you paid him twice.
20:16The evidence is clear that he did not give you back all of your money.
20:20And then to have the gall to accuse you of harassment is really beyond the pale.
20:24I'll note for the record that he repeatedly accused you of attacking him with a gay slur.
20:30We found evidence that you used the B word, which to my mind has a universal insult for anybody on
20:37all occasions.
20:38Not saying that it was appropriate or the nicest thing, but we're dismissing his countersuit in its entirety.
20:43And listen, we wish the two of you a wonderful life and a wonderful wedding.
20:48In the meantime, the judgment and this action is in your favor for the full amount requested, $4,500.
20:55Good luck to you both.
20:55Thank you so much.
20:56This case is now concluded.
20:58Parties are excused.
20:59You may step back.
21:04This guy is a menace.
21:06I have a warm heart and I believed in him all the way to the end.
21:10When he did not give my money back and I said, you have with the wrong guy, you little b.
21:16And I just want to have it on record that we never saw the contract that he submitted today.
21:20That was news to us.
21:23Yeah, and you're the kindest, the kindest.
21:24Homophobing him.
21:25I'm not, that's not who I am.
21:27Have you been scammed?
21:29Let the majority rule in your favor on Tribunal Justice.
21:33Find us on social media.
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