Decided to help a kid I have known for a while. He used to maintain my lawn and was good but he always seemed to have set backs. Went through a divorce and then was working for his dad. He comes to me and says he split from his dad and is taking most of the customers with him. So I decide to bankroll this little venture. Everything started off good but when I asked for his license to get commercial insurance before I purchased a company truck. Turns out he has no license DWI. This is after I already spent thousands on all new echo equipment, enclosed trailer, LLC set up, phone line. His answer is “ i did not think it was a big deal because everyone has a DWI now a days”. Then I start asking for his customer list so I can set up route’s and determine route density. He can not get me one has excuse after excuse. I decide to use one of my crews to run his route with him as a passenger but then determine I am too busy to do this so task him with hiring a driver. He also supposedly had a crew to start with, these guys were no where to be found. One of the candidates he found had 16 years experience and a clean driving record. So I send the info to my agent and he did have a clean record so clean he didn’t exist. After this I shut everything down and he starts telling me it is “just a bump in the road”. Then proceeds to tell me how much money we will make Yada yada. I tell him he can’t produce a customer list and the main reason for my involvement was he had an extensive customer following. Then months later find out he doesn’t even have a license. My question is can I proceed with legal action to recoup any money I spent?

If you want to throw good money at bad money maybe. I would not bet on it though

Yeah but this one is a matter of principle. He has been using my equipment to make money and just tried to hustle me. All of a sudden he has money but is not smart enough to keep a running total of the money I put in the company: so when I agreed to let him pay me back he was a few thousand off and his text messages stopped. He is just thinks he can pull the wool over my eye’s and it has me wound up. Thanks for the advice

He sounds judgment proof to me. Most losers are. Unless you can find a judge to take one of his kidneys for you to sell, I'm guessing he has nothing as far as real property. Good luck though and I hope it works out, but a partnership in Texas is real close a marriage legally.

Do you really think your gonna get money out of him ?? Ain’t gonna happen. Move forward without him with your crews and make that money back without him.

You have your hands on equipment?? You better. My Brother went through this kind of deal many years ago. Wood cutting Business. Cat told Him he could get all the wood at a place out of Bronte Texas. Bought a used 2 ton stake bed Chevy , several chains saws , and give the cat a credit card and lost it all. This was after a few months. The guy did make several trips loaded to top of bed and kept the money. Did get the truck back less tires . Cost him about $20,000 grand . This was back in the early 80's. Verbal partnerships in Texas without a contract is just between friends the Judge told Him . .

I have been down a similar road before. Getting a judgement isn’t all that hard. Collecting is another matter. As far as I can tell the only way I will ever get paid is if the person I have the judgement against owns real property like a house and goes to sell it and the judgement will show up and they will have to clear it to be able to sell the property.

There is zero point in suing someone unless they have sizable assets you can get. There is no debtors prison and nothing will be done to force someone to pay even if you win in court.

I would get the judgement. You would be shocked to know how many deadbeat criminals are left money and property by parents, siblings, and grandparents and unless they have a judgement against them they are home free. Very few of them ever have a civil judgement against them for some reason, most likely cause people think they will never have anything.

Agree with the Beez, even if you win what does assets does he have, probably Nada.

Get your hands on as much of the equipment as you can and move on down the road. Don't have anymore contact with him and never look back.

And never go into any kind of partnership again, with anybody, including family, except MAYBE your wife. (My wife and I would kill each other, but that's just us and our "passionate" relationship. )

So many young men that can't work "for the man" or take orders from anyone else. So many badazzes that are going nowhere at lightning speed.

10 years a judgememt goes dormant

Most people that have “Bad Luck” all the time don’t have bad luck at all but make really bad life choices and it’s self inflicted…

I would get what equipment I could back and walk away, I personally wouldn't waste more good money trying to collect something that’s not their to collect on.

Get what equipment you can, and call it a lesson learned. Getting the cart in front of the horse happens sometimes.

Judgments can also be renewed every ten years. Sounds like from your post that you own the equipment. Take it back and salvage what you can. Your due diligence should have been done before you put the money out. Always a bitter pill to swallow when you trust someone. We usually get screwed by the ones we know the best. Sad but true. You were a good person to try to help him out.

Realize you got hoodwinked. You are blaming so much on guy who punked you when you are the guy who let it happen. You allowed your good intentions to run amok thinking no one in their right mind would do something like this to you because you would never do it to them. This is a classic example of getting punked.

I would not think about spendind good money trying to recoup your losses. What do you think you will get back. The legal authorities will feel sorry for you and will do little if anything to help here. This is considered a white collar crime and no one was physically hurt. Just some naive business owner trying to help some "downtrodden" individual.

if you control the LLC, then sell its assets and dissolve it. Please do not tell me you paid for all this equipment, set up the legal paperwork and do not maintain control. If so, you will be like Captain Dan. You'll need to get home to agree to pay back without a legal leg to stand on. A moral one yes, but a legally enforceable one, I doubt not.

Throw up and get better, but always remember. I am so sorry you ran into this Jackleg. More proof that no good deed goes unpunished.

We called it wrong when I was growing up.

Sure can, and you spend more time and money and effort chasing judgement that will never happen

When I was growing up, someone either got killed or beat alive for stiffing someone

I had a friend that got stiffed on a deal. I think he may have known the guy stood to inherit something. He got a judgement, renewed it at ten years, and sure enough the deadbeat did have an inheritance.

My friend got paid, with interest. The interest rate was much higher than typical fixed investments.

That's tenacity. 'Takes energy to keep the fire stoked under that (righteous) grudge though. I'm bad about holding grudges.

let it go, let it go

I know a guy named Guido……

Now he has his mommy bailing him out. This 30 something has no accountability and now I see why. I got most of the equipment but she says she will buy it all for bouncing baby boy. I almost don’t want to because then he can’t operate. But at the end of the day I will be able to recoup some of the loss. Either way he has until tomorrow to show up with cash or my equipment. I am dissolving the LLC and until then he can not run under that name.

You must be an old school trusting kind of guy. Sorry you got burned