Blood Python Death-Legal Action?

[MDball0918]

About 5 months ago I traded 3 of my proven corns for a hogg island boa and a baby Blood Python. The guys name was Arnie Thompson. As soon as I got the Blood home I noticed something wrong with it's scales. I emailed Arnie to see if he knew what was up. He said it was in "shed" ha. Anyways two days later the Blood dies. It was devastating. My gf emailed him telling him what had happened and asked him to replace the dead snake with another Blood. He said he would but he wouldn't have any in for a month. Emailed him a month later. He pushed the date back another month and the same thing for the next month. Finally 5 months later I email him and say just to get it over with I would like two of his chameleons and one of his scorpions which equaled out to the amount of a new Blood. He then asked if I had any pictures of the dead Blood. I did but after he agreed to replace it, never asked for pics before, and being 5 months later I deleted them. He then stated that his lawyer said no pics, no case. Take him to court. I had two other ppl witness that snake die and they watched me bury it. After talking to a friend of the family, the Assistant D.A. for my county he told me that because of the witnesses I will have no trouble in court. Should I take him in or should I just take the loss and leave it alone? To me its people like this that give the reptile industry a bad name. Any advice?

[Alexandra V]

I'd say spread the word about him to everyone you know and take him to court. If you let people get away with that kind of thing there will be more like that in the future.

[jfreels]

I imagine you live in the same state as Arnie? It's quite costly to battle something like that across state lines. Have you posted anything on the BOI?

[MDball0918]

I imagine you live in the same state as Arnie? It's quite costly to battle something like that across state lines. Have you posted anything on the BOI?

Yes I do actually he is only about an hour from me. No I haven't posted anything on BOI yet. I was really hoping it would work itself out because I hate to take anyone to court but I don't want this to happen to others either.

[Freakie_frog]

Forget court..they will only replace the animal and you have legal fee's, court costs ect..Let the BOI have him!! guy wants to play like that..expose him.. but give him the chance and tell him that he either makes good or you'll out him give him 24 hours to respond..

[zina10]

Yup BOI is a great idea. This will hit him where it hurts, and also give him a chance to explain his side of the story.

Other then that, take him to small claims court. That won't cost you and arm and a leg, and I bet he won't expect that, either.
He probably just blows hot air when he tells you he spoke to lawyers, etc.

Because IF he did, his lawyer would have not advised him that you have no case.

You have witnesses, but most importantly, he AGREED to replace the snake, several times. Hopefully you kept some of that
correspondence, but if not, even a verbal agreement holds up, especially since he kept stringing you along.

Since he is only an hour from you, small claims will be easy to do. Call his bluff, get your ducks in a row and go for it.

Just in my opinion.

[Tim Mead]

Cause him all the grief your capable of..

[Gloryhound]

I'm not pointing fingers at anyone, just playing the devils advocate here.

Since you live an hour away, I take it this deal was done in person. Which means you actually had all the chance in the world to look at the snake with your naked eye and still took it without questioning anything, which means at the time the animal changed hands it appeared to be in good health. If the deal was a third party (Fed-ex or UPS) deal and shortly after it arrived you noticed something that would be one thing, but it doesn't sound like the case here.

Did your witnesses go with you to do the trade?
Was the animal observed by a witness from the time the trade took place to the time you noticed the scale problem?
Was a cause of death determined forensically for the snake?

I think your case would be very difficult to win in a court of law since something as simple as leaving the sun bake the snake bag through a window for an hour long car ride can cause significant damage to scales. (Not saying you did this, just bringing up possible defenses.)

Also if you go to court you could find yourself in a counter suit.

[ice#1]

if you take him to small claims court and win he has to pay everything not you if you talked to a d.a and he says you got a case go for it nail his but to the wall and then also do the boi thing to to make sure it don't happen to others


(not sure about all states but state i live in if you win in small claims other person has to pay all fees even your attorney fees but it could be different state to state)

but if you were smart you saved the e-mails where he said he would replace month after month till you got sick of hearing his excuses and asked for something else then all of a sudden he wants to see pix he said he would replace so that is a verbal agreement and is a legal binding contract and if you got it saved in e-mails from him you will win in court

[sho220]

Unless you've got solid evidence the BOI will only result in page after page of nonsense...sometimes it does serve it's purpose, but most of the time it ends up just going back and forth and it's impossible to tell what is what...