Lawsuit?

[Guest UpsetUmp]

This is a rather long story.  Not looking for legal advice per say, but am looking for opinions on how to handle a situation that happened to me recently.  I was umpiring a tournament when I met a fellow umpire who said he was an assigner for a huge end of the year tournament.   I gave him my information and life went on.  About 2 weeks before this tournament was supposed to begin, I receive a phone call from him asking if I am still interested in umpiring the tournament.  Games were supposed to be Thursday - Sunday and he said I would get 18 - 20 games.  Due to me traveling, he also said that the directors were willing to pay for a hotel room.   I accepted this and he said he would get back to me shortly.   The Monday before the tournament he calls and says that he is working on the schedule still, but the directors said to go ahead and book a room, preferably keeping it around 100 a night.  I go and find a decent place at 86.20 a night including tax.  I let him know and he says to book it and that the money would be reimbursed on my paycheck.  Wednesday rolls around and I still do not have a schedule.  I call him and he says he is having to switch some things up as they got rain (which was true) and to meet him at the main fields Thursday and he would have me a schedule.  I drive the roughly 140 miles Thursday morning and meet him.  He tells me the games he had me scheduled for that day were rained out, and they were looking to find a field to reschedule.  He invites me to go check into the hotel and wait, or I could even go to his house if the hotel wouldn't let me in.  I go to the hotel and they allowed me an early check in.  I waited the morning and never heard from him, so I drove back to the main fields to find him after unsuccessful phone attempts.  He was not there, and one of the tournament directors said that he was at another complex.  I drove to that complex and he was not there either.  The director here sent me to another field where I did find him.  He apologized and said he was trying to find me a place for the night, but that those games I was on had been rained out.  He said to wait at the field and that he would be back.  I waited a bit, and he never returned.  Later that night I get a text from him apologizing stating that the field I was supposed to be on got rained out, and that thise games were moved to another facility.   The umps there would cover the games and that I was not needed.  He said he would cover the nights hotel, and that he would send me a check.  I was rather mad and tried to contact him by phone, text, and at the various fields, but never found him.  I left to go home Friday.  It has been some time and I still have no check from that nights room, and he is ignoring my calls and texts.  The way I see it, I am out 900-1000 dollars of promised games, the hotel expense, and travel to the complex.  I also declined a weekend tournament where I would have made 450.  Thoughts on what (if anything) my options are?

[noumpere]

small claims court.

[HokieUmp]

Well, you're not actually out 900-1000.  You're out the cost of the room, and the travel.  Sure, one of those lawyers I see advertised on late-night local TV might be able to cobble up and argument that you're out 'potential income,'  But you didn't spend it, so you're not really out.

Advise-wise, the obvious one:  don't ever work with/for that guy again.

Less obvious:  run his name through the mud every chance you get.  (Note:  this advice may contradict directly with slander laws.  I am not a lawyer, just vengeful.)

[umpstu]

20 minutes ago, HokieUmp said:

Well, you're not actually out 900-1000.  You're out the cost of the room, and the travel.  Sure, one of those lawyers I see advertised on late-night local TV might be able to cobble up and argument that you're out 'potential income,'  But you didn't spend it, so you're not really out.

Advise-wise, the obvious one:  don't ever work with/for that guy again.

Less obvious:  run his name through the mud every chance you get.  (Note:  this advice may contradict directly with slander laws.  I am not a lawyer, just vengeful.)

I have trouble with the printing in the rule books, much less whatever your printed at the end. Come here Fido and read that to me.

[MooseLoop]

Small claims court would involve figuring out the how-to on small claims court, which county to file in, filling out the complaint, filing the complaint, paying the filing fee, hiring a process server, serving the defendant, preparing for and attending the hearing, putting on your case with documentation of your claims, maybe getting a judgment, and trying to enforce a judgment.  His version of the transaction will be different than yours.  Who knows what a judge will do with it.  I'd guess you may get a judgment for $86.20, plus the filing and process-server fees.  You might get nothing and be out the fees.

It ain't worth it.  You would be better off sending the guy a dozen red roses and forgetting about it.

[MadMax]

I'm with @MooseLoop on this one, and I've heard of this happening to fellow umpires in all the traveling tournaments I've done, albeit rarely. Even if the shadiness and shenanigans and shell-game that you were subjected to didn't happen, and the games merely got rained out and the tournament scrubbed, you would not see a dime. This is why traveling tournaments try to use local umpires as much as possible, or bring in guys that they've worked with extensively before, and may have on a stipend or reimbursement plan. Anyone new or "unknown" they bring in is a very... tenuous arrangement.

So, you've essentially taken an unplanned, not-really-needed vacation. What I would consider doing to get a few drops of lemonade out of the lemons is to write / call the hotel you stayed at, and (briefly) explain your experiences, and how their hotel was the one bright, enjoyable spot in a rather miserable weekend. Suggest you are going to review them (well) on TripAdvisor and Yelp, and tell them your lack of games put you out a bit of money... they might comp you a discount voucher for a future stay at that, or another hotel in the chain.

[RichMSN]

The team I coach had a tournament completely washed after one day.

Per the tournament policy, we received no refund.

This must be the greatest result for tournament organizers, who kept our money and (I guarantee) didn't pay the umpires that were scheduled.

I worked one weekend tournament a few years ago and Game 3 of the 4-game-block I was working was forfeited.  It took me a helluva struggle to get paid for that game.  They actually thought that I should sit there for 2 hours and not get paid and it was perfectly fine for them to pocket the money.

[LRZ]

If you have a friend who is an attorney, ask him/her to write a demand letter on the firm's letterhead. See what happens, can't hurt.

[FleasOf1000Camels]

Chalk this "lost weekend" up to experience and move on.

The assigner/tournament director agreeing to reimburse you for the hotel ought to have been a red flag.  I travel away from home regularly for tournaments, and standard-operating-procedure is for the tournament organizer to make housing arrangements.  The well run events reserve large blocks of rooms for the teams, then require out-of-town teams to use their 'preferred' hotels...in the process the tournament organizer earns a certain number of 'comps' from the hotels...these comps are then used to house tournament officials and umpires.

I NEVER travel beyond a 90 minute drive unless I have tournament-paid accommodations AND a written guarantee for a minimum of three game fees per day... and my tournament schedule was booked every weekend from mid March through early August.

 

[RichMSN]

Bad word of mouth is sometimes the only thing these guys hear.

Locally there's a group where the UIC is a friend. I agreed to work for him one weekend. At the end of the day he told me that I should never come back. He found out the tournament organizer from a neighboring state made a deal with a buddy and paid his umpires considerably more than he paid us. And gave them rooms.

Once I quietly spread that word to other locals....