Whenever buying a used car in Belize, the warning is always to let the buyer beware – and if you're paying under five thousand dollars, the chance that you're getting, at best, a fixer-upper, or, at worse, a "hunk of junk" increases exponentially.
And that's the chance a Cayo woman took when she Bought a Nissan Altima for four thousand dollars in December. Shortly after she bought it, the car started having major mechanical problems. She filed civil suit in magistrate's court against the couple she bought the car form – and, in a surprising outcome, she won: the couple has to re-imburse her. Jessie Castillo is the one the action was taken out against, and he told us about this strange legal ordeal which almost landed him in Jail!:…
Jessie Castillo -Sued for selling defective car
"In December, a woman bought a car for my wife and like two weeks after that she came back and said that the timing chain was popped so my wife offered to replace the chain and then my wife gave her the money. She came back like two days after that and said that the whole head of the engine was cracked or bent and that it needed to be replaced. My wife told her that if the head was bent prior to her buying the car the she wouldn't have been able to move it."
Monica Bodden
"She took the vehicle to a mechanic before purchasing the car."
Jessie Castillo
"Yes when she sent her son to view the vehicle, I gave him the keys since I was the only one at home. He took it to his mother and they took it to a mechanic and they came back and said that they wanted the vehicle."
Monica Bodden
"What happened next after you said that you wouldn't pay for a head to be fixed?"
Jessie Castillo
"She went to put in a summons, I'm not sure the term for it, but she summons me and I didn't sell her the car - it was my wife sold the car and she summoned me."
Monica Bodden
"So you had to show up in court?"
Jessie Castillo
"Yes, I went to court and I was having enough confidence in the court system that when I went there the Magistrate would have told her you need to summons the right person, But instead I got charged for and I had to payback $4,500. My wife sold the vehicle to the lady for $4000 and she sued back for $4,500 and the magistrate granted it to her."
Monica Bodden
"And where is the vehicle now?"
Jessie Castillo
"It's parked at a mechanic."
Monica Bodden
"Is it her property still?"
Jessie Castillo
"It should be, they haven't transferred the ownership as yet."
Monica Bodden
"Now, this is a funny situation because from what I understand - if I buy something from you then you're no longer the owner and not responsible for my purchase - how do you see it?"
Jessie Castillo
"That's the same sentiment that I have and I think that when we sold the vehicle then it was her responsibility.'
Monica Bodden
"You think justice wasn't served in this case?"
Jessie Castillo
"Not at all - it was unfair. I appealed the case on May 30th and the lady at the Supreme Court told me that I have to wait until the magistrate sends the note of evidence to the supreme court and up to now she hasn't sent it and when I went to check - on of the person's in the office said that the magistrate said that she wasn't going to allow me to appeal the case, I told them that the magistrate doesn't have the right to turn down anybody's appeal."
According to Castillo, he was required by the Cayo magistrate Narda Morgan to pay 2,000 of the 4,500 dollars forthwith – and when he couldn't come up with the money, he was placed behind a jail bus transporting prisoners to the Hattieville prison. His wife managed to intervene with money and get him out of the bus just before he reached prison. Castillo is a primary school teacher.
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