Opinion
2010-1264 Q C
11-17-2011
Mina Ayad, Respondent, v. Metro Co. Corp. Doing Business as METRO CAR WASH and LUBE, Appellant.
PRESENT: : , J.P., PESCE and WESTON, JJ
Appeal from a judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Cheree A. Buggs, J.), entered April 1, 2010. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $2,000.
ORDERED that the judgment is modified by reducing the award in favor of plaintiff to the principal sum of $1,765.50; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff commenced this small claims action to recover the sum of $2,000 for the cost of the replacement of his vehicle's transmission. Following a nonjury trial, the Civil Court awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $2,000, finding that defendant had damaged plaintiff's vehicle, requiring the replacement of its transmission. Upon a review of the record, we find that, with regard to defendant's liability, the judgment provided the parties with substantial justice according to the rules and principles of substantive law (CCA 1804, 1807; see Ross v Friedman, 269 AD2d 584 [2000]; Williams v Roper, 269 AD2d 125, 126 [2000]).
However, the Civil Court erred in awarding plaintiff the principal sum of $2,000 as the cost to replace the vehicle's transmission with a used transmission, because this sum does not correspond to the damages established at trial. The total paid bill submitted by plaintiff from the transmission repair shop was in the amount of $1,800, plus 7% tax. However, only $1,650 of this amount, plus 7% tax, involved the replacement of the transmission. Accordingly, the Civil Court should have awarded plaintiff the sum of $1,650, plus 7% tax, or $1,765.50, rather than the sum of $2,000. Accordingly, the judgment is modified by reducing the amount awarded to plaintiff to the principal sum of $1,765.50.
Steinhardt, J.P., Pesce and Weston, JJ., concur.