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‘Caveat
emptor’, warn US consumer courts
A consumer who
has been wronged has recourse to the legal system in the US and should not
hesitate to use it, writes Mohan Babu
In my earlier
column, I talked about how the small-claims legal system in the US is designed
to protect the rights of individual consumers, and provide a mechanism for
aggrieved customers to put forward their grievances. Following is the
continuation of my saga.
In order to
pursue the case against the travel agent, I called up the county clerk’s office
in Skokie Illinois and requested them to send me the necessary forms. The forms
were quite simple — requiring less brainwork than filling up a simple EZ Income
Tax form. I also had an option of having the Sheriff’s office, deliver a copy of
the case to the defendant.
About six weeks
after I had mailed my documents, I received a postcard from the court saying
that a hearing had been set for my case on November 9, and that I was required
to present myself along with all the documentation and evidence. I went about
preparing for the hearing right in earnest, filing all the documents, tickets,
copies of credit card bills, invoices etc. I also took care of all the logistics
— took a day’s leave, booked the air-tickets to Chicago, hotel stay, rental car
etc. Initially, the wife and I were a bit jittery about flying from Colorado to
Chicago, especially in the current travel scenario.
The court
The Circuit court
of Cook County, Skokie is a huge, nondescript building. We reached there by
about 12.15 pm for our 1.30 pm hearing. There were about a dozen cases listed
for hearing that afternoon. The courtroom opened promptly at 1.30 pm and the
clerk, a pleasant lady of Indian origin sorted the files in the order in which
the litigants presented them. A sheriff, responsible for maintaining the decorum
was also present in the courtroom. The judge soon arrived, and without much
fanfare, the clerk started calling out individual parties. When our case was
called, the travel agency — represented by its director, and I went before the
judge. The judge, a brusque lady of sharp intellect, who had probably heard
hundreds of cases like ours, asked me if I was prepared to proceed with the
case. I replied in the affirmative. When the same question was put to the
representative of the agency he started blabbering something about not having my
tickets. I knew right away that he hadn’t come prepared for the hearing. The
judge asked us to sit down and wait for our turn.
The wife and I
were engrossed in observing the proceedings of the court. The first to come up
for hearing was a landlord-Vs-tenant case, with the landlord claiming damages
for a soiled apartment. Each case was taking fifteen to twenty minutes and I
decided to take a break. On my way back to the courtroom, I found the director
of the travel agency waiting for me outside the door. He
asked me if I had
the unused portion of my ticket with me. I replied I did, I also added that no
one had ever asked me for it! He said that if I would give him the unused
original tickets, he would ‘settle out of court’. I was speechless! Here I was
after ten months of trying to contact his agency, being told that all they
needed to settle the matter with me, were the tickets. I pointed out that we had
a hearing in a few minutes, and after presenting my evidence to the judge, she
would probably award me the amount owed to me, along with the costs that I had
incurred. I gave him the option: pay what was due to me, along with the costs,
and I would settle. After thinking for a few minutes, he agreed. By then, a
representative of the court, sensing that we had come to a ‘settlement’, came
out and advised us of the option available if we wanted to settle. I went in and
had a word with my wife, who was thrilled that we had a settlement - all that we
had asked for, right from the beginning.
The director of
the travel agency tried to worm his way out of the court without his agency’s
name appearing in the settlement document; but the judge would have none of it.
She signed an order stating, “settled and dismissed with prejudice. The court
retains jurisdiction to enforce this settlement.” I was thrilled by the outcome
and said a small prayer to the lord. Later that evening, I dropped by the travel
agency to collect our cheque.
The moral of the
story: There are some businesses and service providers who try to bury their
head in the sand. By ignoring their customers’ problems, they hope that the
customers would forget about them. Law of probability is at their side since
most of the people I know would not dream of taking a business to task. As savvy
customers, we probably should. A persistent customer, who has been wronged, has
recourse to the legal system and should not hesitate to use it. Caveat emptor -
Buyer Beware. One does not require an advanced degree in law to know one’s
rights. On this note, I rest my case.
Post script: The
author has deliberately omitted the name of the airline and travel agent so that
he is not accused of slander.
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