Buhari V. Mack
Jun 27, 2011OUTCOME: $30,000 plus legal fees.
In this case, residential tenant Mack was renting a unit in a 3 flat building that was being converted to condos. Defendant Buhari acted as the rental agent for the second owner whom bought the unit as ... a condo. The previous owner, the developer, settled for $10,000 but failed to pay and now Mack has a judgment against the developer. The jury heard only evidence against Buhari, whom had the authority to change the locks on the unit. Since Buhari failed to disclose the ownership details and the status of the conversion and kept changing the names for whom the rent checks should be made payable, tenant Mack started moving out, at the time only owed one month of rent. During the course of his move the Jury found that Buhari either changed the locks or retained persons to change the locks on Macks unit and then threw items out including his bed, clothes, jewelry, food, pots and pans, towels and his extensive 45 rpm record collection of jazz or early rock and roll. He claimed lost property of about $10,000. The jury awarded the sum of $30,000 to him and the judge awarded reasonable attorney fees to Mr. Ring over and above that amount to Mr. Mack. In this matter, Mr. Buhari was represented by an experienced attorney Mr. Willis Brown, which forced Mr. Ring to court on numerous motions, status calls in excess of 40 times in Court in an attempt to tire both Mr. Ring and his client Freddie Mack out. The jury awarded all the damages requested by Mr. Ring for his client. Mr. Buhari through his counsel demanded monies in the amount of $6000 from Mr. Mack prior to trial in their settlement discussions.