Q: What do I do if someone is watching our cat and never told us that he ran away and threatens us if we try to come over?
We had a friend watch our cat because we couldn't have him at the place we were living for the time being. We have all of his vet records in our name and he is chipped. We wanted our cat back but we were told he ran away weeks ago and we were also threatened not to come to these people's property. What can we do?
A:
Are you saying that you don't believe the cat ran away, but rather that these people are keeping the cat and lying to you? If that is the case you can file a case for replevin which is the type of case that asks for the return of personal property. But I would first want you to have proof that the cat is still at your friend's house. You might want to talk to a lawyer as to how to best go about getting evidence and bringing your case. I would also talk to a lawyer who knows how to use ORS 20.080 which would allow you to make a demand for up to $10,000.00 asserting the tort of wrongful conversion of your property. This will give them 30 days to respond with an adequate offer or return the cat, otherwise you can sue and get attorney fees. This may scare them into being more forthcoming as to the truth of the situation.
Just an aside. Leaving property in the safe keeping of another is also known as a bailment. My case, Barnes v. Lachner in 1989 was about using ORS 20.080 and the bailment theory as a contractual theory. The court agreed with me that, at that time. ORS 20.080 applied to contract theories. Later the law was changed and ORS 20.082 was created to be the statute that applied to small contract case, intended to take that coverage away from ORS 20.080 so that ORS 20.080 would only apply to torts. But what the court in my case, Barnes v. Lachner, didn't address and is still an open question, is that bailment issues are the types of issues that can be deemed tort as well as contract issues. So I think that a breach of bailment could still be an ORS 20.080 case despite the legislative changes subsequent to my Barnes v. Lachner case.
The reason this is very important is that ORS 20.080 only puts the risk of attorney fees on the Defendant while ORS 20.082 makes the risk of attorney fees fall on both the Plaintiff and the Defendant. (Ie, the prevailing party gets attorney fees under ORS 20.082.) So you definitely want to discuss this with an attorney and get professional help. I would be happy to discuss my ORS 20.080 ideas with the attorney you decide to talk to if they want to contact me.
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