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Superior Court awards woman $10K
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Posted on Aug 11 2004
The Superior Court awarded yesterday $10,000 to a Korean woman in connection with a sale of a vehicle, which its co-owner repossessed.
Associate Judge Ramona Manglona granted Park Kyung Hee’s request for judgment against one of the defendants, Kim Dong Hyen. The award also includes interests and costs incidental to the lawsuit.
Court records showed that Park paid another defendant, Kim Jeong Teak, some $10,000 to acquire a 2002 Mitsubishi Montero that was jointly acquired earlier by the defendants from Triple J Motors.
Kim Dong Hyen impliedly admitted that he falsely reported to police that the car was carnapped to take possession of the vehicle from Park, after the latter already tendered her payment to Kim Jeong Teak.
The judge ruled that Park’s requests for admission from Kim Dong Hyen were deemed admitted because of the latter’s failure to contest them within the prescribed period.
The court favored Park’s contention that Kim Jeong Teak actually made a cash downpayment of $18,264 to Triple J to acquire the vehicle. Because the purchaser, a tourist, needed to obtain a bank loan to cover the remaining cost of the vehicle—or close to $10,000—Kim Dong Hyen agreed to facilitate the loan application sometime in 2002.
The two defendants agreed that Kim Jeong Teak would pay for the loan, although Kim Dong Hyen was listed as borrower. Both defendants signed the contract for the vehicle’s sale as co-buyers.
Later that year, Kim Jeong Teak decided to sell the vehicle to Park, who paid $10,000. As part of the agreement, Park would take over payment of the bank loan’s remaining balance. Kim Dong Hyen knew about the transaction between Kim Jeong Teak and Park.
When Kim Dong Hyen later reported to police that the vehicle was carnapped, lawmen retrieved the vehicle from the woman and transferred to the defendant’s possession. Park then filed the civil action.
