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00:00You paid to complete a family tree for you.
00:03Correct.
00:04So you did, in fact, complete that.
00:06I did a significant amount of work.
00:09That's not my question.
00:11I can explain.
00:12Did you do it?
00:13I wanted to finish the project for her.
00:16You know what she's talking about?
00:18No, I do not.
00:19This is Judy Justice.
00:39Cheryl Stevens is suing cold case investigator Gabriella Vargas for a refund of services
00:46she never completed.
00:49Court come to order.
00:50All rise.
00:53Have a seat, please.
00:54Judge, case 4038, Stevens v. Vargas.
00:58You're welcome.
00:58Ms. Stevens, your claim involves the return of money that you paid to Ms. Vargas to complete
01:05a family tree for you.
01:07Correct.
01:07You paid her $750.
01:09When did you pay her that $750?
01:11I paid her on February 7th.
01:13Of what year?
01:142023.
01:16And we are now in October of 2024.
01:20Did you receive the information that you wanted from her with regard to your ancestry between
01:27February 7th, 2023 and October of 2024?
01:31I did receive information.
01:32Tell me what you received.
01:34From February 9th to February 25, all of this represents the changes that she made on my tree.
01:41Yeah, I see it.
01:42Yes.
01:52Well, this is a lot.
01:53I don't know what's old and what's new.
01:55So, I don't have information on what the tree looked like before she touched it.
01:59So, that represents an ancestry, all the changes that she made. She deleted some of my information. She added some
02:07family members. But she did not complete the job.
02:10Well, what was the job supposed to look like?
02:12The job was supposed to be complete on my mother's side of the tree with her grandparents, her grandparents, siblings,
02:19and so forth. And none of that is stated on my tree.
02:22Do you have a contract with her?
02:24No, I only have an email in which she stated what she would do.
02:28I could like to see it, please.
02:29I made a text. I'm sorry.
02:30I'd like to see it, please.
02:31There we go.
02:33Right down there.
02:34So, she did do work?
02:35Yes, she did do work.
02:36OK.
02:38OK.
02:39So, she says to you, hi, Cheryl, I've reviewed your tree and the data. The tree has multiple issues, including
02:46inaccurate information and documentation, duplicate people, and information taken from other trees without proof to support it.
02:54Building out your mother's maternal grandparents will be a bit more complex due to the times of slavery and lack
03:00of documentation during that time.
03:02But it is absolutely possible to do. You sent her that message.
03:07I did.
03:08OK. You told her that the fee was $750 and you told her that it's absolutely possible to do. Did
03:16you do it?
03:17I absolutely did.
03:18Did you receive it?
03:20No.
03:21OK. So, you did, in fact, according to you, complete that.
03:24I did a significant amount of work on her tree.
03:29That's not my question. For $750, you indicated to her in February of 2023 that you could complete the maternal
03:38part of her family tree.
03:40Correct.
03:41And you said it's absolutely doable.
03:42Correct.
03:43OK. All I want to know is, did you do it? So, the answer is no, but you did a
03:47significant amount of work on it.
03:49The answer is yes, I did complete it. However, I was removed from the tree before I could provide her
03:58with the end report.
04:01OK. And when did you complete it? Month, day, and year?
04:06It was in March of 2024. I don't have the exact day.
04:11So, over a year later?
04:13Yes. And I had indicated...
04:15Just a second.
04:16Sorry.
04:17Did you send it to her?
04:18She already...
04:20Did you send the completed work to her in March of 2024?
04:27She owned the tree. She had possession of it the entire time. I worked in her family tree.
04:33I was never the owner of the tree.
04:36So, there was nothing that you had that you didn't give to her, that she didn't have.
04:41And it's what you're telling me that the job...
04:44Careful.
04:45That the job that she hired you for was completed.
04:49Because Whitney is going to read back your prior answer, which suggested to me that it was not completed.
04:56I can explain.
04:57Explain.
04:59Well, first of all, let's just get to was it or was it not completed?
05:05Now, it could not be completed because you couldn't do it for whatever reason.
05:10You couldn't do what you had indicated in your text, what you were going to do.
05:14There may have been reasons why you couldn't do it.
05:16It was completed. And I had let the plaintiff know that I was having an immense amount of issues working
05:25in
05:25her tree because she would not stop working in her own tree, which I specifically asked her not to,
05:32as I was cleaning it up. So, I advised her that I would start working in my own tree that
05:38I owned
05:38to finish completing the work so that it could remain accurate with evidence to back it up.
05:44Do you know what she's talking about?
05:46No, I do not.
05:47I'd like to see what you're talking about.
05:48Talking about an Ancestry.com type of tree. So, it's the plaintiff's account that the defendant
05:53was working in the whole time. However, every time the plaintiff makes a change with or without
05:58evidence, it affects the work that the defendant is then doing in the tree. But she just had
06:03plaintiff's login information. She's not providing any additional pieces of evidence that you're
06:08looking for as far as information about the tree.
06:10Who isn't?
06:11It was the defendant. It's all being done under the plaintiff's account.
06:14I agree. Yeah.
06:15Under the plaintiff's account.
06:16So, but if she makes changes to it, that affects the defendant's work as far as what she's able to
06:20do.
06:23What date did you continue to start to work on it? Just recently is what you say.
06:28I continue to work on it. Well, give me the date of just recently.
06:32Give me the date. That's a date of just recently.
06:35And later today.
06:37You go to the store, play the numbers, and because you're doing this legwork, so I don't have to go
06:44to
06:44the store. If my numbers win, I'll give you half. That's a contract. That's different from a favor.
07:00Cheryl Stevens claims cold case investigator Gabriella Vargas never finished her family
07:07history and owes her a refund. Okay. Your answer says from May until August of 2023. She hired you in
07:16February. You said from May until August, you had issues of your own, so you couldn't work on it.
07:21Yes.
07:22And then you started working on a high-profile murder case.
07:27Yes.
07:27So you also didn't work on it. So now we're going to a year later. May of 2024 is when
07:35you gave her
07:36additional information and she blocked me. So that was a year later. Is what you're telling me
07:41that for a year, her project was placed on hold, either because of your medical issues or because
07:48you were working on another case? That's either a yes or a no.
07:51No.
07:51Okay. So when after February 2023, after the first information, did you work on her tree?
08:01The entire year.
08:03That's not what you say in your answer. That's not what you say in your answer.
08:08You say in your answer, in May and August 2023, I had some family and health issues
08:16and had to put the work on hold.
08:18Yes. And therefore, I was unable to work on it for a few days, maybe a week.
08:23Because I'm reading your answer and your answer says,
08:25just recently I continued to work using the papers I had already printed. I found the original person
08:32in question is not part of a family tree after all, but she does not yet know this. So we're
08:37talking
08:37about now in October of 2024. And you say, I continued to work on this. On what date did
08:44you continue to start to work on it? Just recently is what you say. I continued to work on it.
08:50Well,
08:50give me the date of just recently. Give me the date. That's a date of just recently. March of 2024.
08:58Can you show me some documentation that you did work in March of 2024?
09:02It's all in my texts and emails. No, don't show me a whole bunch of papers. At my age,
09:07I can't go through all that nonsense. So what you're telling me is you did no work on this project,
09:12let's say, August, September, October of 2024. The work that you did on it was March of 2024.
09:18I was unable to. She revoked my access to her account, but I had paper document that I was using
09:28and the work
09:28that I had done in my tree that I continued to work using that documentation because I was paid for
09:35service and I wanted to finish the project for her. What date? Show me the date. I don't have an
09:42exact date.
09:43Give me a month that I finished working on it. Tell me the last time you worked on it. Month.
09:48I restarted working on it when I, in, in August, when I found out that I was being sued.
09:54Okay. Well, that's what I wanted to know. When you found out you were being sued for the return of
09:59your money, you started to work on the project again. Without access to anything.
10:03Whatever access you had. When you found out you were being sued, you started to work on the project again.
10:09And until that time, we're not talking about March of 2020. We're talking about three months ago.
10:15That is correct. Okay. And when you did that work, did you transmit the results of that work to the
10:22plaintiff? I have been blocked and have no contact with her. Okay. Do you have any interest in seeing
10:29the results of that work? I do. If you see the results of that work, then I'm dismissing your lawsuit.
10:36Do you understand? I do. So then let me, let me retract.
10:40No. Okay. Because you have no confidence in it. Right.
10:43I don't. I wouldn't either. Okay.
10:46Judging for the plaintiff in the amount of $750. Thank you very much. This court is adjourned.
10:57I don't feel it was fair. I'm very pleased. I was confused by her testimony regarding being blocked,
11:04because she still had access to my emails and my phone and never communicated with me. I have not
11:10had a chance to speak with her and given her a final report. She was not responsive. I sent several
11:16messages via text and email and even tried calling her and she never responded. I will not be working
11:22with her again. I will find somebody else to finish the tree for me.
11:27No, clearly they had a contract and the text exchange shows contract. $750, I will provide you
11:35with this. It'll be difficult to do it. I can absolutely do it. The contract, simple as it was,
11:42did not state time was of the essence. Interesting. So just for people watching, if you want a time of
11:48the
11:49essence clause, which is a date certain, you should put it in. If there's not a time is of the
11:54essence
11:54clause, you have to use a reasonable standard. You have to say what's reasonable. And she really
12:00didn't start to work on it until after she was served with a summons that said, I'm suing you for
12:07my money back. Yeah. Well, at that point, the issue is, if she does it, has she cured it? And
12:14I would say
12:15not. If you're responding to a lawsuit, I don't think that I have to rely on the veracity or the
12:23quality
12:24of your work to complete it after you're being sued in order to earn the money that you have already
12:32been paid. Hopefully the plaintiff can take the money that she got here today and have somebody
12:37else complete the tree for her and hopefully you have more confidence in it than someone who finished
12:42it during litigation. A year and a half. Right. As a result of being sued. Exactly. Right. But if you're
12:48doing a contract, the wise thing is to put a date in the contract and say, work should be
12:53completed by this date. Makes it easier. Because clearly she sort of blew off this project for a
12:58year and a half while she had other issues. Yeah. Okay. Case 4032, McPhee versus Snell. All parties,
13:05please come forward. Danielle McPhee is suing her former friend, Leticia Snell, for withholding lottery
13:13winnings and the cost of a rental car. Ms. McPhee, interesting case. You and the defendant have
13:19been friends for a very long time. Yes. You live in different counties, but you are in communication
13:25regularly with each other. And you both play the lottery. Yes. I assume that from your complaint that
13:33you have special numbers. Yes. What are your numbers? 10-04, my birthday. On July 30th of this year. Yes.
13:42You were on the phone. Yes. With the defendant. Tell me what happened. We was on the phone talking,
13:47having a conversation. And then she was like, sis, I'm gonna call you back. I'm finna go and play my
13:52numbers. Call you back. I'm gonna play my numbers. Yes. Which meant she was going to play her lottery
13:56numbers. Yes. Ms. Snell, what are your numbers? Oh, I have so many. Um, I could start off with pick
14:02three, pick four, or pick five. Okay. So you have specific numbers that you play all the time. Yeah. And
14:08she has specific numbers that she plays all the time. Yes, I'm sure. That she, just a second. That she
14:13gave you.
14:13Yes. So on July 30th, when you were going to buy your lottery tickets, she asked you to buy
14:22some lottery tickets for her using her numbers? Yes. Okay. Using her numbers. And she gave you those
14:30numbers? Yes. And in effect said to you, when you're going for yours, I'll send you money, play mine.
14:37Yes. And you did? Yes. How much money did she send you?
14:41$35. And she sent you how? Um, through Cash App. So you got it immediately?
14:46Yeah. Where did you go to purchase the tickets?
14:497-Eleven. How much money did you spend on your lottery tickets?
14:53Oh, I didn't have a chance because I, um, it was five minutes until the draw time. So I was
15:00trying
15:01to put all of our numbers in there, but I ran her numbers first. I spent $4, because that's...
15:06Just a second. Let's go slowly. Okay.
15:11She asked me what time I was going to cash the ticket. The reason why she won't take,
15:16cash the ticket in her name, because she receives disability and she cannot get it in her name.
15:21Oh, there we go.
15:33Danielle McPhee claims her former friend, Letitia Snell, turned in Danielle's winning lottery ticket
15:40and wrongfully kept half the money. Okay. You went to the place, you spent her $35,
15:48played her numbers, and spent $4 of your own? Yes.
15:52How many numbers did you get to put in for $4? Only four tickets, which were a dollar each.
15:58Okay. We're able to go in.
16:00That's okay. What number one?
16:02One, zero, zero, four.
16:04That's her birth date. Yep.
16:05And so this is what the case is about. Ultimately, when you found out that your birth date won,
16:11you wanted your winnings, you offered to give the defendant, according to what I read, gas money.
16:17Yes.
16:17The defendant, ultimately, after some bickering back and forth, sent you half of your winnings.
16:23Yes. And how much were all of the winnings?
16:27$2,700. And you sent her how much? All together, she got $1,371. Is that correct?
16:38Yes. Now, Ms. Snell, I'd like you to try to explain to me why you withheld $1,329 from her.
16:50Okay. When I first called her back and told her, well, she already knew that my tickets didn't run because
16:58I was so busy.
16:59Don't tell me what. Listen to me. Don't tell me what she knew.
17:03Okay.
17:03So far, you had not entered into a business relationship with her, which was, I'll give you money.
17:14You play the numbers, my number, because you're going. If we win, I'll split it with you. That's business.
17:21Mm-hmm.
17:22That's not what you both tell me happened. You were on the phone. You said, I'll have to call you
17:28back.
17:28I'm running to play my numbers. She said, if you're going to play, play my numbers. She sent you money
17:35to play her numbers.
17:36You played her numbers on her birthday one. Where do you think you're entitled to any of that money?
17:42Because I did all the footwork, and her numbers would have never got played if I would have never played
17:47them.
17:47Okay. Ms. Snell, what you did was do her a favor. Now, there's nothing in the law of doing somebody
17:56a favor.
17:56But in order to create a business relationship, there has to be a contract, a meeting of the minds. I
18:03will send you money. You go to the store, play the numbers, and because you're doing this legwork, so I
18:11don't have to go to the store. If my numbers win, I'll give you half. That's a contract.
18:16Mm-hmm.
18:17That's different from a favor. Do you understand? There has to be some theory. There's no theory about I did
18:24the legwork. Do you get it?
18:25Yes. So I'm going to ask you again. Do you see any basis for you not turning over her winnings
18:33to her?
18:33I felt as though I did turn over, you know, the winnings. We never, even when I told her that
18:41our numbers hit, the numbers hit.
18:44No. Her number hit. Her birthday hit.
18:47Okay. Well, even when I told her, there was no discussion of what we were going to do.
18:52She was sending me to the lottery office, which I drove to Castleberry, Florida, to go and cash in a
18:58ticket, which was a good way for my residence to go and cash in the ticket.
19:02Did she ask you to, just a second. Did she ask you to do that?
19:07Yes. No, just to go and cash the ticket? Yes.
19:11No. Tell me when she asked you, because anybody could cash the ticket if you don't put your name on
19:16the back of it.
19:17So you could have given her the ticket and she could have gone to cash in the ticket.
19:22That's easy. So I'm asking you, because I didn't get that impression from the papers, that she said to you,
19:28go and cash in the ticket.
19:30She asked me what time I was going to cash the ticket. The reason why she won't cash the ticket
19:36in her name, because she receives disability and she cannot get it in her name.
19:41Oh. There we go.
19:43Did you ask her to cash in the ticket?
19:46No, I did not.
19:47Not true, Your Honor.
19:48I told her I would come, ask Crystal, could I come to rent a car for me and come to
19:55Orlando to pick up the ticket?
19:56If I'm telling you to cash the ticket in, why would I drive to Orlando for the ticket?
20:01Why don't you just put it in the mail? In any event, there has to be what?
20:04Your Honor, she didn't drive to Orlando till the next day after I cashed in that ticket.
20:09What I'm telling you is, Ms. Snell, there has to be a contract for you to receive half those winnings,
20:16because that was your arrangement.
20:18You can't decide afterwards, well, I did all the legwork and I'm entitled to money.
20:22Do you understand?
20:24Yes.
20:24OK, good.
20:25So I also want to say that even this ticket is in my name, I'm also going to be responsible
20:30for it through taxes.
20:32Well, that's true.
20:34You will.
20:35And if you file for taxes, do you work?
20:39Yes.
20:39What kind of work do you do?
20:41Sanitation lead.
20:42And how much do you earn?
20:43Well, right now, I'm out of work.
20:44OK, then you don't have to worry about taxes.
20:47OK, judgment for the plaintiff in the amount of $1,329.
20:51Thank you very much.
20:52Thank you so much.
20:53This court is adjourned.
20:59Well, I just don't think it's fair.
21:01I did a lot of the, you know, a lot of the work.
21:03I love it.
21:04I was excited.
21:05We both were excited on the phone.
21:07It bothers me because we've been friends over 40 years and I've been there for her.
21:11Ah, she wanted to be greedy and keep it all for herself.
21:13It really bothers me that she took the money like that.
21:16Buy your own lottery tickets.
21:18I'm a winner.
21:21Only one takeaway from this case, my darling, and that is money can break up a friendship
21:27easily because there really was no legal issue here.
21:30It was a favor.
21:31She said, here's my money.
21:33Play my numbers.
21:34And that's what the lotto is.
21:36It's a dream.
21:37Interesting, though, it brings up a bigger issue we were just talking about before we
21:41started about large pools of, you know, offices or groups of friends that buy in together.
21:46And again, it is a dream and such a far out fantasy that you actually win.
21:50I've done it.
21:51But if you do, there should be some.
21:53I mean, you're just praying that everyone that's included in that is
21:56going to stay true to their word and split it evenly.
21:59I never understood how that worked.
22:00I couldn't trust that many people.
22:02But a lot of officers do that.
22:04Yeah.
22:04But this wasn't one of those.
22:05This wasn't a lottery pool.
22:07No.
22:07This was play my birthday.
22:09Sure.
22:09Here's my number.
22:10Here it was clear.
22:10Here's my number.
22:11I just mean it could get a little dicier in other situations.
22:14And it has.
22:15Lots of lawsuits there.
22:16But this one wasn't easy.
22:17It was.
22:19Are you a victim of an assault?
22:21Go to JudyJustice.tv.
22:30Now go to Jackson Hole.
22:32This is the Saudi瓜.
22:33Now go to Washington.
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