The (dis)Honorable Judge Gregory H. Saldivar
Superior Court of California, Santa Clara County, Small Claims Division
14205 Capri Drive, Los Gatos, CA 95032
(408) 370-4440

Date: May 29, 2003

REASON FOR BLACKLISTING: Very poor judgement and refusal to hear Plaintiff's case

Complaint: I filed a lawsuit against Clayton Lambert, doing business as Alpine Motorworks (see Case #4) for $2,920 in backwages. About 10 days before the trial, Clay's attorney served me with a countersuit in the amount of $5,000 (the maximum amount allowable) for the following reasons:

      "Plaintiff took parts, received major repairs on his car (and did not pay us). He used our shop to repair his and other
      cars. He ordered parts and didn't reimburse the shop. The total amount of his bill is in excess of $5,000."

These accusations astounded me. All the work done on my car was done by me or Paul after hours (on our own time, when the shop was closed for business). I worked on a few of my friend's cars, but again, that was after hours on my personal time. All the parts I ordered for my car were documented since I keep a very careful service record on my car and I keep all my finanical documents (cancelled checks, old credit card statements) filed. I was confident that I could fight his countersuit.

When the court date came, I arrived early and was waiting outside the locked courthouse. While I was waiting, I read an article about the Santa Clara County small claims court from the July 16, 1999 edition of the San Jose Mercury News  that was taped to the front glass. The judge, Gregory Saldivar, was quoted in the article as saying, "When you hear these types of cases, you have to exercise a lot of common sense. You also have to be a good judge of character, and I think I've gotten pretty good at that.":




When we were all allowed into the courtroom, the judge ordered all parties outside to exchange evidence documents. I showed Clay my timecards, my receipts for the parts I bought, the credit card statements and cancelled checks showing I paid for the parts, and a few copied pages of the California Labor Code. Clay, however, gave me a stack of documents over an inch thick. Included was a 32 page "Statements of Fact" that weren't really so; most made bogus claims that I stole parts, conspired with other automotive repair shops to close Alpine, that I secretly worked on other cars and collected income, that I stole money from the shop, and other allegations. But each "statements of Fact" were all signed by Paul, Clay, and Simon, so it didn't look good on my part. (Strangely, Clay also printed out every single page of this website as evidence that I worked on my car during shop hours since there were some photos of my car taken inside the shop. Even though there was no way he could prove that I took those pictures during business hours, he used it as evidence against me.)

We then went back into the courtroom and awaited trial. When my case was called, as the plaintiff, the judge asked to hear my side. The story was very simple; I gave him my timecards, I told him how much I was paid, how much I am owed, and that I was fired without pay because of Clay's reasoning that I caused the shop to lose assets. I probably spoke for about two minutes in total. The judge then asked the defendent (Clay) his story, and what happened for the next half hour left me with my mouth wide open.

Clay started off by bringing his French whore wife Marie and his 3-month old son to the stand. His first remarks were how terrible of an employee I was. He gave the judge all his paperwork and alleged that I owed the shop about $8,000 in parts stolen. Included in Clay's receipts were invoices for other customer's parts (such as 740i cylinder heads and 528e exhaust systems) that I never purchased. He then shot off that I built my 2.8 liter engine during shop hours, that it took so long that Alpine had to force customers away because I was hogging the hoist and that I didn't pay a dime in parts. He added that my time cards were forged because I broke into the shop after I was fired and stole them. I objected, but the judge frowned at me and said that he would have to take out my time cards from my evidence because of this allegation (despite my objections), which immediately showed his bias towards Clay.

Clay then said that I begged for a job at Alpine because I was so poor and that I damaged countless cars because of my stupidity. He also said that my wages were $8/hr. In truth, Paul hired me because he needed some extra help and paid me $12/hr as wages (later raised to $14/hr, which both Paul, Kim, and Clay later denied ever occuring). Clay went on and on about what a terrible person I was, how I was the sole reason why Alpine went out of business, and how I have a criminal history that made me such an untrustworthy person, all of which the judge believed (despite the fact that none of it was true).

I must have objected at least seven times during Clay's "testimonial", but each time the judge silenced me. When Clay spoke of my supposed "criminal history", the judge looked at me, shook his head and said "That's not good Mr. Kim!" I was appalled. First off, I don't have a criminal history, and second, even if that was true it has absolutely no relevancy to his case! I looked at the bailiff for help, but he sort of shurgged before looking away.

Things were going quite bad for me. I had severely underestimated Clay's tactics and the judge's bias toward an older Caucasian man holding a baby. I know Clay is dumber than an ox and has no class whatsoever, but his wife is college educated and is admittedly very tactful. I'm guessing she prepped Clay for the trial, which I should have expected. I was sorely disappointed at the legal system by this point, but then the judge asked Clay why he was countersuing me. To my surprise, he closed his eyes, raised his chin, and retorted "because he's suing me!" like a little child. From there, he started to shoot himself in the foot.

The judge then seemed a little concerned and asked him if he ran the shop on a daily basis. Clay said no, a guy named Simon was in charge. Judge Saldivar then asked if Simon was on the payroll, and Clay said he was paid cash under the table. When Saldivar asked how Paul fit into all this, Paul replied that he didn't know anything because he was an alcoholic and couldn't recall any of the events. The judge then threw his arms up in the air and said that he was utterly confused, but that he did think that I was in charge of the shop's operations despite what Clay said earlier.

Saldivar shook his head and looked completely bewildered. He told us to leave and that he would rule in two weeks. Turned out that it took him five weeks to make a judgement, and after all that time his ruling was zero-zero (meaning that I owe nothing and that I receive nothing), so now I'm out $2,920.

Judge Gregory Saldivar is a complete moron and a poor judge of character. He cannot distinguish between proven fact and authored fiction, and furthermore, he allows his personal biases to cloud his judgement and should be removed from the state bar. If you are an employer in Santa Clara County, feel free to not pay your employee his/her wages and fire them for any reason. It's perfectly legal in Saldivar's courtroom.




11/1/2003 UPDATE:  It appears that Clay is so heavily in debt that his house and all his possessions have been seized by the IRS. He is now living out of a hooker motel somewhere in San Jose. I guess things do have a way of working themselves out.