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Tribunal Justice - Season 3 - Episode 18: The Wall Came Tumbling Down EngSub
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00:00You and the defendant are neighbors.
00:02Yes.
00:02Now, on Tribunal Justice.
00:05I looked out the window, and there were two individuals tearing bricks down off the wall.
00:10The wall is between her property and my property.
00:14I went and I called the police.
00:15Come on. Really?
00:17The wall looked like it was falling down.
00:19If it would have fell down, it would have fell into my driveway.
00:22Which is why you should have fixed it yourself.
01:00You may be seated.
01:01Thank you, Cassandra.
01:02You're welcome.
01:03Okay. Miss Fleming.
01:04Yes.
01:05You and the defendant are neighbors.
01:07Yes.
01:07And according to your complaint, you're suing the defendant for $8,116.75 that you paid to fix a wall
01:15that he destroyed.
01:17Correct.
01:18And Mr. Abhi, according to your answer, the retaining wall that's the subject of this lawsuit was in a state
01:24of severe disrepair when you bought your house next to the plaintiffs.
01:28Correct?
01:29That's correct.
01:29And this lawsuit, according to your answer, is nothing more than the plaintiff's attempt to get you to pay for
01:35something that is not your responsibility.
01:38Yes.
01:38Correct.
01:38Okay.
01:39So, Miss Fleming, why don't you tell us how long you've lived in your home?
01:43I've lived in my home over 13 years, Your Honor.
01:45And I've never had any issues with the prior owners of the defendant's home.
01:49Okay. And when was it that the defendant moved next door?
01:54I believe it was October, 2023.
01:56And how is it that you remember that?
01:58Because I have a driveway, a private driveway, and the defendant had backed his van into my private driveway and
02:09was lifting doors out of the back of his van over into his yard.
02:13I beeped on my horn, and he came over to the car and said, hi, I'm your new neighbor.
02:17Okay. I want you to describe, ma'am, your relationship with the defendant as your neighbor after he moved in.
02:24I really didn't have any kind of interaction with him because I felt like everyone over here, several people over
02:30there, they disrespected my property.
02:33How is it that they disrespected your property?
02:35They come, they stand in front of my house, talk on cell phones, they drive motorbikes, they park motorbikes on
02:42my sidewalk in the front of my house after I have repeatedly asked them not to do so.
02:48Also, mail starts showing up at my house with their names on it, with my address.
02:52Was it the defendant's mail?
02:54It's someone from over there.
02:56How do you know?
02:56Because there were African names.
02:58African names. Are you still from Africa?
03:00Yes.
03:00Okay. So you're not saying that it was the defendant's mail, you're saying that it was some other people with
03:05African names that had sent mail to your own.
03:06Well, whoever lives there. Whoever lives there. I wasn't even clear on his name at first, to tell you the
03:11truth, your honor.
03:12Okay. So besides the incidents that you just told us about, you mentioned, though, that something happened then in your
03:17complaint on July 26th.
03:19Correct.
03:202024. So this would have been about seven months after you moved in. Is that correct, sir?
03:24Yeah.
03:25Okay. July 26th. Why don't you tell us what happened?
03:27Okay. So I was in my kitchen, and I heard, like, banging noises. I looked out the window, and there
03:34were two individuals in my private driveway tearing bricks down off the wall.
03:38And I asked them, what are you doing? And the guy says, you have to talk to my boss. So
03:43then he shows up, and he goes, I tried to talk to you. And I'm like, what are you talking
03:47about?
03:48So then he's talking about the wall is going to fall, and he wanted to pave his concrete in his
03:54yard, and my wall is making his concrete buckle, which made no sense.
03:59Because I'm like, even if the wall did fall, the wall would fall down into my driveway.
04:04Okay. So why don't we take a look at some before and after photographs?
04:07All right. Let's take a look at the before wall. That's 01. So that's the way that the wall looked
04:14prior to it being fixed, correct?
04:17Correct.
04:18Let's go to photograph number four, please. Is this the photograph that you took from July 26th?
04:23Yes, it is.
04:24These are the gentlemen that were working on the wall on your property?
04:28Right. They were down in my driveway.
04:30Well, hold on. Where are they right now?
04:31They're up in his yard now.
04:33So that's his yard?
04:34That's his yard right there. They were down in my driveway prior to that.
04:38Do you have a picture of them in your driveway?
04:40I don't because I had to go upstairs and throw something on.
04:43I get it. Okay. Do you remember him saying that your wall was buckling?
04:48Right.
04:49So what did he tell you about that?
04:50He said that the wall was buckling and was going to fall.
04:53Well, he was saying that my wall was making the sidewalk in his yard buckle.
04:59And I'm like, that made no sense.
05:00There was a tree stump in his yard, and the roots from that tree stump was what was making his
05:06sidewalk crack.
05:07Okay. And then do you remember what the defendant did after you told him that you didn't want these people
05:13working on that wall?
05:15They stopped, and that's what they're doing now.
05:17They started putting the bricks back on top of the wall.
05:19And after they stacked the bricks on the wall, what did you do?
05:24I went and I called the police.
05:26Oh, you didn't speak to them about why you were upset? You just went right to the police?
05:30Right. Well, I didn't want to talk to them.
05:31I called the police because they trespassed on my property, and they started destroying the property.
05:35So I called the police.
05:36Did he tell you that it was his belief that that wall was his wall?
05:41No.
05:41Is that true, sir?
05:43Your Honor, I thought it was my wall.
05:46So I want to, like, concrete the back of the house, and I cannot concrete the back of the house
05:51with that wall like that.
05:54That photograph was taken prior to anything that I did there.
05:59And there is also a video that you took that will give us some context as to where things were.
06:04Is that correct?
06:05Yes.
06:05Can we please play that video?
06:06That's D1.
06:08That's a house.
06:10This is my house.
06:11So both of us have a tree house.
06:14That's a tree house.
06:16This is the back of my house.
06:19And that's a car.
06:20This is on my side.
06:24This is on my side.
06:26But I have to fix it now.
06:28So I'm clear.
06:30What we saw in that video was the new wall that she hired someone to do.
06:34To do.
06:34Correct.
06:34So would it be fair to say that what you directed your contractor to do was to remove the old
06:42bricks and to replace it with those...
06:45Right.
06:45Cinder blocks.
06:45Cinder blocks.
06:46Correct.
06:46And there was some damage to the backside of that wall on your property.
06:51Yes.
06:51No, that was his concrete in his yard that was broken up from the tree stump that was there that
06:57was removed when they did the new wall.
06:59Your Honor.
07:00So stop, stop, stop.
07:01There was a tree stump that you said that was on his property?
07:04Right.
07:05You said that when your workers came, they removed that tree stump.
07:08They did, but I did not direct them to.
07:10Did you go to the police and complain about her?
07:13I have no harm against her.
07:15I get it.
07:15I just...
07:16I get it.
07:17By the way, when you called the police, did they respond?
07:20There are a lot of things going on in the city, so some things aren't a priority.
07:23So I actually went to the police station to file a report.
07:26And did you review that report before you provided it to us?
07:29Yes, I did.
07:30And was everything in that report accurate?
07:32Well, the name was incorrect because, as I said, I wasn't sure what his name was.
07:37So you didn't even have the common courtesy, ma'am, to go up and ask him what his name was.
07:41Is that right?
07:43Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
07:46Everything is one-sided.
07:47Like, you want respect, you want courtesy, but you don't give the others the same thing, ma'am.
07:56Dorothy Fleming says neighbor Kojo Abbey is a nightmare and is suing him for $8,116 for damaging her wall.
08:05But Kojo says the wall needed repair, and it's on his side of the property line.
08:09So you didn't even have the common courtesy, ma'am, to go up and ask him what his name was
08:13before you filed a police report against somebody else.
08:16Is that right?
08:17But the information was pertaining to him.
08:20The other name was in that household.
08:22So you actually went down and you filed a criminal complaint against someone who did nothing wrong to you?
08:26By accident.
08:27Yeah, I did.
08:28Great.
08:28Judge Acker.
08:29Thank you, Judge Levy.
08:30Do you concede that this wall is located exclusively on the plaintiff's property?
08:36No, that wall is not her wall.
08:39The wall is between her property and my property.
08:43And it's between, it's for us.
08:45So that is my preliminary question because, ma'am, when I looked at the property line survey that you submitted,
08:52the boundary is not clear to me where the wall sits in relationship to the property boundary.
09:00I mean, I share a fence with a neighbor because the fence is on the line.
09:04We both share responsibility for maintaining the fence.
09:08So I want you to explain to me how that survey correlates with this wall.
09:14Okay.
09:15So from the survey, to be honest, I can't say for sure because this is what I was given for
09:19my deed.
09:20So you've now conceded that the property line survey that you submitted does not at all establish that the wall
09:26is entirely on your property.
09:27Now, let's put up Exhibit 1, please.
09:30And you concede, ma'am, that this is a picture of the wall before the defendant did any work.
09:34Right.
09:35This wall is about to fall down.
09:36There are missing bricks.
09:37This is material evidence.
09:39Okay.
09:39This is evidence that you were saying he destroyed this piece of junk.
09:45Maybe he did you a favor by taking down some of those bricks.
09:49By trespassing on your property.
09:49And you admitted to Judge Levy that your people trespassed on his property, but he didn't see the need to
09:55call the police about that.
09:57Yeah, I know.
09:57He came into my driveway.
09:59So, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, ma'am, double standards are real.
10:01So I want to move on to the next point that I'm interested in.
10:04Can we put up Exhibit 6?
10:06Ma'am, it's your contention that the entirety of the wall is on your property.
10:11Yes.
10:12Now, sir, the tree root, like that kind of gap that I'm seeing just to the left of the wall,
10:18is that where the tree root was disturbing the cement?
10:22Yeah.
10:22And the tree root contributed to the damage of the wall.
10:25Ma'am, that wall looks like it was older than some of my dead relatives.
10:29Can we go back up to Exhibit 4, the worker damages?
10:34Now, before the plaintiff directed your workers to stop, approximately how long would you say they were working on the
10:42property?
10:42It's not even, no.
10:4420 minutes.
10:45About 20 minutes?
10:46It's not even.
10:47Were you aware of how much time they'd spent working on the wall?
10:50I really...
10:50He says 20 minutes.
10:52I really don't know.
10:53How much of the wall did you remove?
10:57As you can see, this one, I didn't even...
10:59No, you can walk up and...
11:00I didn't even touch this one yet.
11:02It's just here.
11:03And it's just, like, from here to here.
11:06Let's look at Exhibit 5.
11:08And it's the first row, the top row.
11:11It was more than one row.
11:12That's also...
11:13And, ma'am, it's your contention that this photograph demonstrates the condition of the wall after he'd removed some of
11:22the bricks and you told him to stop.
11:24Right.
11:24So he left it like this.
11:26He stacked...
11:26They stacked the bricks back on the wall and just left it like that.
11:29And by the time he'd gone to the police, what was he supposed to do?
11:32Stay there and, like, let himself be arrested?
11:34Because you are assuming that a wall that may not be yours started to be demolished as it looked like
11:40it needed to be?
11:40The wall looked like it was falling down.
11:43Okay.
11:43The wall did have some bricks missing, but not like that.
11:47But my other issue is that the fact that he came down into my driveway while my car was parked
11:52there.
11:53They could have did damage to my car.
11:55Very, very fair point.
11:57Sometimes you gotta call the police on your neighbors.
11:59But sometimes people simply like to escalate things because they think they can make the world their oyster, and that's
12:05just not always the case.
12:06Judge Domingo?
12:07You know what's missing here?
12:08Being neighborly and communication.
12:11For instance, when you did the work in your yard, did you call him and say,
12:14Hey, listen, I'm gonna be doing work in my yard?
12:17Now, what I hear from you is everything is one-sided.
12:21Like, you want respect, you want courtesy, but you don't give the others the same thing, ma'am.
12:27Your Honor?
12:28Yeah?
12:28Anything I had done on my property, like in the front, I had the whole retaining wall on the fence,
12:34whatever, I never interposed on his property.
12:37I think what that's known as is a zero lot line, which means that whatever piece of property is there,
12:45is really on top of both properties.
12:48So that though the front end of that wall, one brick is on your side, brick, this side on your
12:55property, this side abuts his property.
12:59Can't help it, because that's what that means, that there is no separation between the properties.
13:05Your fence, right on the line.
13:07People split that, because they're neighborly.
13:11They have not been neighborly since they moved in there.
13:13You weren't neighborly either.
13:14The guy pulls his truck up, he says, Okay, I'll move it.
13:17In my private driveway.
13:19What's...
13:19What was the harm in that, other than you now having to be in court with the man that lives
13:24next door to you?
13:26Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
13:29That paint was put on there when I bought the house.
13:31When did you buy that?
13:3213 years ago.
13:33So you have a 13-year-old paint job on an 80-year-old wall.
13:41Dorothy Fleming says neighbor Kojo Abbey destroyed her driveway wall, so she's suing him for repair costs, $8,116.
13:51Kojo says the ramshackle wall belongs to both of them, so he's not on the hook for anything.
13:56What was the harm in that, other than you now having to be in court with the man that lives
14:00next door to you?
14:01First of all, I did not know who he was at all.
14:03Did you communicate with him?
14:05Did you give him an opportunity?
14:05Because he has a driveway around the corner.
14:07Did you give him an opportunity to tell you any of that?
14:10No.
14:11You see, you know who you are.
14:12You know it.
14:13I'm a homeowner who takes care of my property.
14:15That's right, but you're also an individual with a personality, and you know what it is, and we do too.
14:20Now, let me pause you, because when you bought the house, were there people living in it?
14:25It was vacant for a while.
14:26It was vacant for four years.
14:28Okay, four years.
14:29You know, she knows.
14:30Was there a for sale sign outside when you bought it?
14:33It was a for sale.
14:34I bought it in October.
14:36And after you bought it, did you take the for sale sign down?
14:39Yes.
14:40So you knew somebody bought that house and was moving in there, so when you say you see this man
14:44in your driveway, you know he's your neighbor.
14:46You're used to having nobody there.
14:48I'm presenting myself to everyone behind her.
14:52All right, so let me move you.
14:53You did that.
14:54So now, you know, you're supposed to keep your property in repair, right?
14:57Right.
14:57That property, you're going to say you kept in decent repair?
15:01Come on.
15:02Really?
15:02Your Honor, did you see the front of my house and the rest of my house?
15:05I have a whole retaining wall.
15:07That's what I'm seeing.
15:07I was doing...
15:08I want to know from you, was that part of your property kept...
15:11That part was not.
15:12It was not.
15:12That part was not, but it does not mean I wasn't going to get to it.
15:15I had a whole retaining wall.
15:16I don't care what you were going to do in a year, two years, six months, nine years.
15:19That wall was in disrepair.
15:22Now you have your whole driveway done.
15:25Right.
15:25The whole driveway.
15:26You claim that that wall was $8,000, and the whole rest of your driveway was only $4,000.
15:34Because they repaired it.
15:35They were able to repair it.
15:36What about all that, Cody?
15:37That wall couldn't be repaired.
15:37That's a repair?
15:38Let's see those two driveway pictures again.
15:40One aside.
15:41Enough.
15:42This is the repaired driveway.
15:44So what I see is an entirely different driveway than the one we saw earlier.
15:49This one has been coated, painted, and sealed.
15:51So you're charging him for things that were done to fix your whole driveway.
15:57I don't want to hear from you.
15:58No, I am not.
15:58That's clear.
15:59The whole project was $12,000, Your Honor.
16:00Yeah, and you're saying...
16:01It was just that one wall was $8,000.
16:03That's what you're saying.
16:04I don't believe that.
16:05That's my point.
16:06No, I saw your quote.
16:07I submitted the quotes.
16:08And I want to read you the rest of your quote, where it says that they charged you for
16:13towing away the things, for the labor, different stuff.
16:16All of that was built into...
16:17Yeah, for that one wall.
16:19And that was on your $4,000?
16:21Please.
16:22How old are these homes?
16:23Do you know, sir?
16:24Hmm.
16:251920...
16:25Do you know how old your home is?
16:26I know how old my home is.
16:27How is it?
16:28It's 80 years old.
16:2980.
16:29That wall is 80 years old.
16:33I don't think the wall was there for 80 years.
16:34It is 80 years old.
16:36No, that paint was put on there when I bought the house.
16:38When did you buy the house?
16:3913 years ago.
16:40So you have a 13-year-old paint job on an 80-year-old wall.
16:43Right.
16:44Anybody have anything further?
16:45I do.
16:46Okay.
16:46Yeah.
16:46So, Ms. Fleming, I just want to get back to a point that was raised by Judge Acker,
16:51and that had to do with a piece of evidence that you referred to it as a survey.
16:55Well, this is my deed.
16:57It's a copy of my deed.
16:58Right.
16:58So that's not a survey.
16:59Right.
17:00That's the deed to your property, so you come in here, and you sue this man for over
17:05$8,000 because you claim that this wall that he destroyed needed to be repaired, and you
17:12don't have the courtesy to provide us with a legitimate survey of your property to prove-
17:17I didn't have the survey.
17:19I had my deed.
17:20Well, nothing prevented you from hiring a professional surveyor to review your property and to submit
17:27that report to the court, which would have been evidence that that wall was either yours
17:32or his, or as Judge Domingo said, both of yours.
17:36Nothing prevented you from doing that, right?
17:39Right.
17:40You do say that back in 2011 in April when you bought the house as per the deed, can you
17:45describe what the house looked like when you bought it?
17:48Was it like a mess, like a foreclose?
17:50No, it was not.
17:50They had, um, I had new windows, they had new carpeting, they painted it.
17:54It had new windows, new doors?
17:56Yes.
17:56Okay, um, you know what's super cool about the internet?
18:01You can actually go on the internet and find out what things looked like back in April of
18:062011, specifically houses.
18:10So let's take a look.
18:11That's exhibit 15.
18:13So this is the ad that shows the house when you purchased it in 2015.
18:19Now, that's the way that wall looked, and the house to your left is actually the house,
18:24your house, right?
18:25Correct.
18:25The driveway was cracked.
18:28Right.
18:28And you didn't do any work on that wall since you purchased it in that condition.
18:33It was painted.
18:34Besides the fact it was painted.
18:35Right.
18:36And you have absolutely no idea when the last time someone did anything to repair that wall
18:41before you bought it.
18:42No, I don't.
18:43So as far as you know, you have no independent information that would contradict what Judge
18:49Domingo said when she said that wall could have been 80 years old, right?
18:53Right.
18:54Good.
19:23Coming up on Tribunal Justice.
19:24This is even more important.
19:30This is even more important.
19:54Right.
19:55Because the wall was falling down.
19:57And again, if it would have fell down, it would have fell into my driveway.
20:01Yeah.
20:02Which is why you should have fixed it yourself.
20:07Instead of going to your brand new neighbor trying to bamboozle him into paying it.
20:12Bamboozle.
20:13Into paying it.
20:14He came into on my property.
20:15I'm done.
20:15I have nothing further.
20:17We're going to retire to deliberate.
20:19Court is now in recess.
20:20Parties will be recalled.
20:25I really don't know what she was thinking.
20:27She calls the police without even giving him an opportunity to sit down, explain what he's
20:33doing and how he's going to fix this wall that she acknowledged was a danger of falling
20:38onto her property and therefore her car.
20:41Calls the police.
20:42Tries to have him arrested, which of course the police don't do because she can't prove
20:47that the property is hers.
20:49Instead of hiring someone, a surveyor, to stake out the property and to prepare the report,
20:54she just figures she's going to come in here and we're going to accept her word as the
20:57gospel and reject the law.
20:59The level of entitlement was absolutely amazing.
21:03She is just a nightmare neighbor and I don't think that she has even come close to making
21:08out her case.
21:09She failed to produce any evidence that the wall was on her property.
21:12She failed to present any proof as to how it was that she came up with him paying $8,100
21:19out of a $12,000 bill, which is about 66%.
21:22Two-thirds, yep.
21:24She just figured she was going to come in here, BS us, and for some reason we, what,
21:30we're just going to ignore and reject everything he said because he's from Africa.
21:35When I read that in the complaint, I go, what does this have to do with the mail?
21:38It didn't.
21:38It had nothing to do, but it was important.
21:41Well, she's never had mail from Africans before.
21:42Oh, no.
21:43And it's very upsetting.
21:44I see you.
21:45It was so important to her that she put that into her complaint.
21:49So it will give me, quite frankly, nothing but pleasure if you two agree with me and just
21:54let me dismiss this lady's case and send her on her way.
21:58I don't know.
21:59I'm just, I'm really like fence-sitting with this one.
22:03I mean, let's see.
22:04She's suing about damages to a wall that she may not even own, precipitously calls the police
22:10for behavior that she herself engaged in when she trespassed on his.
22:15Gosh, I don't know.
22:17I'm going to have to think on this for a minute.
22:19Well, you have to persuade me.
22:21I mean, when you're right, you're right, I guess.
22:23But I got to tell you that, first of all, she negligently maintained that property.
22:27She then compels him or wants him to pay two-thirds of a $12,000 bill, when if you look
22:32at what the contractor enumerated, even if we assume that he's responsible for any of
22:37it, she was trying to rip him off because much of it had to do with what was happening
22:40to her property.
22:41So it wasn't even an even two-thirds split.
22:44I found that this, to me, was a zero-lot line, which meant that it was partially both
22:48of theirs.
22:49But since she couldn't establish anything, can't hold him responsible for even 50% of a number
22:54we would agree on.
22:55Might all be his.
22:56That just doesn't work.
22:56It might actually be on his property for some reason.
22:59She deserves nothing.
23:00Just meaningless.
23:04Court is back in session.
23:05All parties are reminded that you're still under oath.
23:08First off, Ms. Fleming, what I will tell you is this, that everything that you did, everything
23:13that you said, everything that you testified to, the fact that you came in here and you
23:18expected to win a lawsuit about a wall on a piece of property that you can't even prove
23:25is yours.
23:26You made zero effort to present evidence that that wall was yours.
23:30You knew that what you gave us, you knew that what you gave us was a deed and not a
23:33survey, and that you just assumed that we, judges, are going to accept what you have to say and ignore
23:40the law.
23:42Otherwise, you would've brought in a survey report. It would've cost you a couple of bucks, not nearly the 8
23:48,000 that you were hoping to get from him, but you didn't even bother.
23:51Why? We don't know. But you, ma'am, you didn't come close to proving your case, and that's the reason
23:58why the unanimous verdict of this court is to dismiss your case in its entirety.
24:04This case has concluded. All parties are dismissed.
24:13Anything he said was a lie.
24:15I just want to be a good neighbor.
24:16Like a good neighbor, stay over there.
24:18Anything she wants, I'm, I'm here for her.
24:22No comment.
24:24Did someone break an agreement?
24:27Let tribunal justice decide your case.
24:30Find us on social media.
24:48I just want to be a good neighbor.
24:51What a great day.
24:54I'm here for it.
24:56We're out.
24:59We'llony.
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