Faulty Engine Build, Broken Promises

**brantastic** · 03-22-2012, 05:59 PM

My question involves a consumer law issue in the State of: California

On 3/4/10 my engine rebuild was completed by Javier Gutierrez of JG Engine Dynamics after requesting a rebuild due to excessive oil consumption and the recommendation of Jason's Honda in Tujunga as well as Stanley from Honcura motors. A month or two later the engine was installed and a couple months after that I started to notice it was still burning oil. After numerous excuses and attempts to contact JG about this, he finally agreed to rebuild it after testing the engine himself and finding that there was indeed excessive oil consumption. So he got the engine and rebuilt it which took another 3 months, and I paid to get it installed again by a friend of mine. The oil issue did not improve whatsoever so I email JG about a month later and he says he will pay and swap my engine with one of his. This never happened. He gave me the run around for 7 months after this, and now won't return my emails. His number is also disconnected. Do I still have a case against him? It's been a long time and I was too patient with him, but this has got to stop.

**Mr. Knowitall** · 03-25-2012, 10:36 AM

If you can prove that he did defective work, you can sue him on that basis. We cannot promise that he's still in business or can pay a judgment.

**brantastic** · 03-25-2012, 02:15 PM

How do I prove that ? It should be pretty straight forward. I paid to get my engine oil consumption fixed and the engine reconditioned, and he failed to do so. I also found other people complaining about the quality of his work all over the internet AFTER the fact he started working on my engine. So people can vouch that he is unreliable. He accepted taking back my engine and working with me initially so he should be responsible for taking on this task that I paid almost 3 grand for...even other engine shops don't want to work on engines this guy has worked on because they claim he is incompetent. For example I was gonna have someone else (Port Flow, a reliable engine builder) redo the engine but once I said it was from this guys shop they didn't want to touch my engine. There was one email correspondence with me and him after the second rebuild asking why my engine keeps burning oil...and he said that possibly my block is cracked. He had a chance to look at the block TWICE and didn't catch this?

**brantastic** · 03-26-2012, 03:35 AM

Holy cow his business is suspended. I think I need a lawyer for sure

**brantastic** · 03-26-2012, 03:37 PM

I guess I should ask, if he is labeled a corporation, is it still possible to sue him personally?

**Mr. Knowitall** · 03-26-2012, 06:22 PM

Generally not. it depends on the full facts.

**brantastic** · 06-13-2012, 01:21 AM

UPDATE:

I found him, got him served by the Sheriff, and he never showed up to court. I won by a default judgement. I should be getting a letter soon telling me what to do next. I know for sure he is going to give me difficulty in collecting the money, are there any things I should know about the next steps? Thanks