02x58 - Business Review Bombshell

[bunniefuu]

Before you could move into the house,
you had to upgrade the electric.

Correct.

You were dissatisfied with the company?

I had it signed off.

But it was signed off
when the job was half done.

That's your problem.

You want to sign off
when something's half done, fine.

I wouldn't sign off
when my hair was half dry.

[narrator] This is Judy Justice.

♪♪

[narrator] John and Cynthia Frazee
are suing John's former clients,

Cynthia Booth
and her fiancee Dwayne Burnley,

for posting damaging reviews.

[bailiff] Court come to order. All, rise.

Be seated, please.

-Hello, Judge.
-How are you?

-Case 2079, Frazee versus Burnley Booth.
-Thank you.

[bailiff] You're welcome.

[Judy] Mr. Frazee,
you are an electrician by trade?

Correct.

And how long have you
been in that business, sir?

Since 1986 as a licensed

and 1978 as an electrician.

Now, maybe a decade ago,

you're going to give me the exact year,
month and year,

you were called to do a job for this lady.

-Your last name is...?
-Booth.

Ms. Booth.
And you did an electrical job for her?

We'll go into it more fully in a minute.

When you were doing that job,
you brought in a helper,

-this gentleman whose name is Mr. Burnley?
-That's correct.

And before you brought in Mr. Burnley,
I gather from the papers,

Mr. Burnley did not know Ms. Booth.
Would that be a fair statement?

That's a fair statement,
but he did not bring me in.

I was actually just driving down
the street and I'm new to Mountain,

and I drove by and saw
Mr. Frazee there and I was...

Listen, this is not Gone With the Wind.

This is not w*r and Peace.
I asked you a simple question.

-Before you were brought in on the job,
-[Dwayne] Okay.

you didn't know Ms. Booth?

-That's correct.
-Right. And that was about ten years ago?

Correct.

[Judy] Since that time,
since you were brought in on the job,

you and Ms. Booth have
gotten to know each other a lot better.

Correct.

And I assume that "by a lot better"
that the two of you live together.

Correct.

[Judy] And you've been
living together for how long?

-Since November.
-Of this last year,

-Yes.
-[Judy] November of 2021.

But prior to that,
you were social friends?

-Correct.
-And that social friendship started

when first introduced to her at this job.

-Uh, no.
-It's the first time you met her.

Oh, that's the first time
I met her, correct.

Correct. This is your problem

and this is the nature of your lawsuit.

You allege that
you did a job for Ms. Booth,

almost a decade ago,
and you came to ascertain

that Ms. Booth, and or Mr. Burnley,

had written some negative reviews
about your company,

currently wrote negative reviews
about your company

based on work that you did ten years ago?

-Yes.
-That's your complaint.

[Judy]
And you asked them to take them down.

First they did, then they didn't.

You found other
ones posted in different areas.

Now, Mr. Burnley,
are you a working man, sir?

-Yes.
-[Judy] What kind of work do you do?

I'm an electrical contractor.

Okay. Now, at the time
that you first met Mr. Frazee,

-did you have your own company?
-Yes.

-[Judy] You had your own company?
-Yes.

[Judy]
In what year did you do Ms. Booth's job?

I did it on April 30th, 2013.

-That's not correct.
-That's not correct.

[Judy] Shh!

Month and year you say you did the job.

The job was done on May 9th of 2013.

Okay, so we're off by a month,
is that right? I don't care.

-You were talking about nine years ago.
-Correct.

Now tell me something about the job.

What was the nature of
the electrical job that you were doing?

An older home needs to have at
least a minimum of a 100-amp service.

Ms. Booth's home had
a 70-amp service at the time.

She was purchasing it and that came up

on the inspection report to replace that,

which I was engaged to do.

-[Judy] So far, correct?
-No.

Well, now I'll have your version.

Did you have to upgrade the electrical?

I had to upgrade
due to a homeowner's insurance.

-[Judy] Okay. Well, the home...
-That's what they required.

What's the difference in what he said?
He said that you had to have

-your electricity upgraded.
-Mm-hmm.

[Judy]
And it came up in the inspection report.

It did not come in the inspection report.

Well, then how did they find out...
who found about it?

I was honest with my policy.

[Judy] What do you mean
you were honest with your policy?

Well, they asked me
what year the house was

and what, um, amperage it had,
and I said 75.

And your insurance company said to you
it has to be 110.

-100.
-[Judy] Oh, 100.

Yes.

Before you could move into the house,
for one reason or another,

-you had to upgrade the electric.
-Correct.

Okay. And you hired Mr. Frazee to do that.

Yes, he was one of my friends.

I don't care whether
he was your friend or not.

If he was your friend and he was a vet,

you wouldn't have hired him
to do your electrical work.

[laughs] No, of course not.

[Judy] He was your friend and
he was an electrical contractor.

Right. Correct.

[Judy] And when he came
to your house to look at the job,

-did he come alone or with a helper?
-Alone.

[Judy]
Once you change the ampage in a house,

do you have to get somebody

from either the county
or the city where you live

to sign off on it?
That's either a yes or a no.

-Yes.
-[Judy] And once Mr. Frazee did that,

modified the ampage,
did you have an inspection?

-Yes, Your Honor.
-[Judy] Do you have that inspection?

-Yes.
-I'd like to take a look at it.

-And the job was not...
-I didn't ask you anything.

Okay.

That al-also includes
Mr. Burnley's inspection.

Just a second. Just a second.

I'm sorry.

Don't volunteer. I'm old. I get confused.

I try to keep these things very linear

so even I understand them.

This is the inspection sign off

on the work that you did
in two thousand and...?

-Thirteen.
-[Judy] Thirteen.

Have you seen it?
Yes, of course, you have.

-No.
-[Judy] Well, show it to them.

You do remember that you
have to have an inspection afterwards?

-Of course.
-Okay. It's just common sense.

If you didn't have the work done
and you said to your insurance company,

"I had the work done,"
the insurance company would say to you,

"Show me proof
that you had the work done."

-[Booth] Correct.
-Otherwise we're not giving you insurance.

-Correct.
-[Judy] So, you know you had an inspection

after he completed the work.

It wasn't after the work.

-The work was never... This is...
-Shh! Shh!

-I didn't ask you anything.
-Okay.

-But I will answer for you, Your Honor.
-She wasn't...

-[Judy] You can.
-Okay.

You can. So the insurance company
accepted your word

-that the work was done?
-Yes.

[chuckles]
Okay. Can I have that back, please?

And I...I did tell them I had it
signed off, but it was signed off

when the job was half done.

That's your problem.

You want to sign
off when something's half done, fine.

I wouldn't sign
off when my hair was half dry.

♪♪

I'm saying to you that it
was nasty and malicious.

And it wasn't until the two of
you were coochy-coochying

that all of a sudden,
we got negative reviews

about a job they did nine years before.

That's ridiculous.
It's mean spirited.

♪♪

♪♪

[narrator] John and Cynthia Frazee
blame John's former client,

Cynthia Booth and her fiancee,
Dwayne Burnley,

slandered their business.

Dwayne is countersuing
for filing a wrongful lawsuit.

Now, my next question
to you is, after 2013,

did you perform electrical work
for Ms. Booth in her house?

-That's either a yes or a no.
-Yes.

Now, I'm going to ask you,
what was the nature?

I don't know.

[Judy]
What do you mean you don't know?

-I don't remember.
-[Judy] You mean... just a second.

You remember the work that you did

when Mr. Frazee was there in 2013,

when you were with him,
but you don't remember

the nature of the work that you did
for your girlfriend in 2018?

-I'm pretty sure it was a panel upgrade.
-[Judy] Just a second.

I want you to think.

What kind of work did you do
for Ms. Booth in 2018?

It must have been the panel
upgrade that I did at her house.

I changed the 100 amp out to a 200.

-Sh... Look at me. Look at me.
-[Dwayne] 'Cause that would be...

I'm sorry.

So you changed the 100 amp...
Shh!

This is not my strong suit.
And I have to tell you something.

Of the 100 million
people who are watching this,

they're going out to
get a cup of coffee right now.

[chuckles]

You changed the 100 amp
that he had done in 2013

to a 200 amp you upgraded it in 2018.

-And put a surge protection system.
-[Judy] And a surge protection.

-Yeah, that... now I do recall.
-[Judy] Okay. Great.

When was the first negative review

that you can show
me written about your company?

Now we got what's going on.

-Now I have it clear.
-[Dwayne] 2019, Your Honor.

Do you have it clear?

I think a...a little bit more
fuzzy than you, but clear enough.

-Do you have it clear?
-I have it clear now.

Do you have it clear?
Well, just to make it crystal clear,

Mr. Frazee did work
at Ms. Booth's home in 2013.

It was electrical work.

It was electrical work performed
by him with the help of Mr. Burnley,

because in order to get a
homeowner's policy on her new house,

she had to upgrade to satisfy,
according to only insurance...

-Correct.
-[Judy] That's what you say.

-From 70 to 100 amps.
-Yes.

Whole new thing at my age I'm learning.

Now. Evidently,
they liked what they saw in 2013

and that materialized into a romance.

Good for you.

And in 2018, I assume he was living there.

-No.
-When did he move in?

-[Dwayne] November of...
-Shh!

-[Booth] November...
-November of last year.

-[Booth] Yes.
-Okay. But you were dating in 2018?

-Yes.
-[Judy] Yes.

In 2018, Mr. Burnley,
not with the help of the plaintiff,

replaced and upgraded
the 100 amp to 200 amp,

which is much better,
because I know that I have 200. That's...

You have to plug things in.
It's 110, 220, right?

-Yes.
-[Judy] 110, 220.

And he put in a surge protector.

Now, even I know
what a surge protector is.

Correct me if I mistaken.

That means if there's an overload,
a lightning strike, whatever it is,

it protects it so the whole board
doesn't fry and everything turns off,

and then you have to replace
all the ele... the wires go [buzzes]

Am I right? Right.

So he upgraded
the system and touch of necessity,

what Mr. Frazee did in 2013,

no question, had to do that.

Now, I'd like to see the negative reviews.

And when they started.

The first one we found,
it was in 2019, Your Honor.

Well, are these in order? This was...

That's the most current one
that was in February of 2022.

Did you write this?
"Frazee Electric,

He was supposed to do a panel change
and never put rods in

and fried my electronics
in my home and garage opener.

Left such a mess and never cleans up."

-That's correct.
-[Judy] Did you write that?

-Yes, I did.
-[Judy] When? In what year?

Uh...

-About three years ago.
-Three years ago?

-2018.
-Approximately.

About when he changed
the electrical system.

-[Booth] Yes, uh... um...
-Just a second.

About when he changed
the electrical system.

All right. Then you wrote something,

"I will not even write
this company one star,

due to the unprofessionalism
in completion of work.

Hired this electrician to do
a 100 watt panel.

Never grounded,
never finished, and left a mess.

He's known for not cleaning up,

had to hire another electrical
contractor that was most professional..."

Now, when did you write that review?

About the same time.

-[Judy] 2018?
-Yes, on a different review.

Okay, now, that was a different one.

And you said that you had to
hire another electrical contractor?

-Yes, I did.
-[Judy] To finish the job.

-And who was that?
-That was DMB electric.

-That was him?
-[Booth] Yes. I...I called...

-Just a second...
-to come back.

Just a second.
In what year did you call them?

Oh, this was...
-[Judy] No, in what year did you call him?

-2013.
After he left, you called them?

-I called two other contractors.
-[Judy] Just a second.

-Did you end up using Mr. Burnley?
-Yes, I did.

[Judy]
Okay, so back in 2013,

-you were dissatisfied with this company?
-[Booth] Yes.

[Judy] Let me follow this.


dissatisfied with the company.

-You called another company...
-Two other companies.

[Judy] Just a second.
You called another company,

but the county had signed off on your job.

-Yes.
-[Judy] But you say and your answer is

that they signed off
erroneously on the job.

-Well, I have to take on face value
-Yes.

their signing-off
that the job was completed.

And I assume you
got your homeowner's insurance.

Yes, I did.

[Judy] After he left and after
you had the county sign off?

-Yes.
-Yes.

-[Booth] But they...
-Okay, now just a second.

-Don't tell me a "but...but..."
-No.

Now, five years later,
because this was written in 2018,

Correct.

Five years later,
you're now dating Mr. Burnley.

-Correct.
-[Judy] Who is now living with you.

-No.
-[Judy] Who had...

Well, you say you moved in in 2021.

-Oh, 21, I thought you meant 18.
-Yes.

-Yeah. Who's now living with you.
-[Booth] Yeah.

-You began dating in 2018.
-That's correct.

[Judy] And Mr. Burnley,
who is now living with you, and in 2018,

you woke up one morning and said,

who now has his own electrical company,

woke up and said,
"Five years ago, Mr. Frazee's company.

And he did not do
a professional job in my panel."

And now we're dating.

And now all these negative reviews come,
not in 2013, when we...

Sarah, you have Yelp
and all those things in 2013?

I'm not sure if I can get
back that far, but I could search.

-And I wasn't aware of Yelp.
-[Judy] Just a...

-I don't care what you were aware of.
-[Booth] Okay.

You mean... you woke up in 2019

and found out that you could
give a star or review...

That's the first time you found that out.
I don't believe you.

-The review... 2018...
-I don't believe you.

-Well, it's true.
-[Judy] I just want to tell you something.

I don't believe you. I don't believe that
when you want to go to a restaurant,

Ms. Booth, and it's a new restaurant,

you don't take a look
on your computer

and say,
"I wonder how many stars it got."

"I wonder if there are
any reviews on this resort."

[Booth] Yes.

[Judy] Well, then you were
smart enough to do this.

My sons are in IT,

-so they told me...
-[Judy] I want to tell you something.

-I don't believe you.
-[Booth] Okay.

Because I'm older than you are,
and I know about this,

and she can tell
you I'm an idiot on the machine.

-[Booth] Well, I...I'm the...
-[Judy] So I... So I...

I don't buy it.
And I don't buy actually...

Yeah, it is.

-I can't see any of the reviews.
-[Booth] Your Honor...

-[Dwayne] But, Your Honor...
-No.

But there are reviews on Yelp of
his business that all are very positive.

[Cynthia Frazee]
I have them if you'd like to see 'em.

I will look at them...

And I have negative reviews of...
that says the exact same thing.

-What Cindy posted.
-[Judy] Just a second.

You don't understand what
I'm saying to you, Mr. Burnley.

I'm saying to you that it
was nasty and malicious,

because if she was
unhappy with the service,

-it would have been posted in 2013.
-[Booth] I did...

Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen.

And it wasn't
until the two of you were coochy-coochying

that all of a sudden,
we got negative reviews

about a job they did nine years before.

That's ridiculous. It's mean spirited.

♪♪

All those positive reviews
that you posted,

did any of them have to do
with people that you're sleeping with?

-[chuckles]
-[Judy] That's the question.

-No, of course not.
-[Judy] No, of course not.

-I'm not that kind of girl.
-[Judy] Okay.

♪♪

♪♪

[narrator]
Electrician John Frazee

has accused his former client,
Cynthia Booth,

of posting damaging reviews
years after the job was completed.

-It's mean spirited.
-[Booth] That's not correct.

[Judy] Just a second.
You say it's not correct.

-Well, I'm just saying...
-[Judy] I'm looking at the timeline.

-I'm looking at an inspector's report.
-Right.

-Who is a disinterested party
-Mm-hmm.

who signed off on an electrical work.

I'm listening to Mr. Burnley,
who five years later,

did work that replaced his work

from 100 amps to 200 amps
with a surge protector,

and all of a sudden, you start writing

negative reviews about their company.

That's the timeline.

And if you want to try to fill me in

and make me feel as if I made a mistake,

I'll give you 30 seconds to do it.

Okay. Yes.
We started seeing each other in 2014,

and my sons are in IT administration,

and they had told me,
"Mom, you don't know...

[Judy]
Don't tell me what your sons...

-[Booth] Okay.
-Don't tell me what your son told you.

Okay, I didn't know
about Yelp or Google reviews.

-And... back at that time...
-Back then.

because I'm not computer savvy.

You want to know something?
[whispers] I don't believe you.

-I don't believe you.
-Okay.

I'm almost 80 years old,
a lot older than you are.

And I know that if I want to
look something up,

which I do, occasionally,

I look something up and I say,

"Did so and so eat
at this fish restaurant?

It's a new place, it's a new town.

I'm going to go there
and take a look at it."

I know how to do that.

-[Booth] I know.
-And I'm an idiot. And I'm an idiot.

And if you just found it out,

-if you just found out how to do it,
-[Booth] I did. I'm old school.

then there was no reason
for your first review

to be about his company,

-about a job that was done...
-No.

There was 91 other reviews I posted.

-Just a second. Positive or negative?
-Positive.

Are you sleeping
with any other electrician?

-No, I'm not.
-[Judy] Just a second. That's the end.

All those positive reviews
that you posted,

did any of them have to do
with people that you're sleeping with?

-[chuckles]
-That's the question.

-No, of course not.
-[Judy] Of course not.

-I'm not that kind of girl.
-[Judy] Okay.

What I'm telling you is the
timeline doesn't make sense.

These nasty reviews written about a job
that started nine years before,

in this case, six years before,
now, that you are...

sleeping with a head of an
electrical company,

don't make sense.

And my nose tells me if it
doesn't make sense, it's not true.

Now, when you came back a month later,
what else did you do?

-Didn't clean up a mess.
-A-at that time.

Just a second. Didn't clean up a mess.

Yes, I cleaned up the mess.

-[Judy] You cleaned up what mess?
-My mess.

-He needs to clean up his mess.
-[Judy] Oh his mess.

Well, you didn't...
That's what she told you.

No, I have other reviews of other
people on the internet that posted that...

I'm asking you a question.
You didn't clean up his mess?

-I didn't clean up his mess.
-[Booth] No.

-[Judy] Right.
-I misunderstood you.

-[Judy] Okay, well, that's what I said.
-I'm sorry.

You didn't clean up his mess.

No, I cleaned up his mess.

And didn't write a review.

Well, I didn't know about it at all.

B-baloney. I'm telling you,
you can say it until the cows come home.

-I don't believe you.
-[Dwayne] That's not true, Your Honor.

-[Judy] I don't believe you.
-[scoffs]

And I don't believe that the first
year that you found out to write a review

is when you and
Mr. Burnley started a relationship.

-I just don't believe it.
-[Booth] No, I...

And I think it's mean spirited.

You have to know, Ms. Booth,
I think it's mean spirited.

But we were seeing each other in 2014.

[whispering] Oh, oh.

-You were seeing each other in 2014?
-Yes.

You have a company, sir?

-Yes, I do.
-Do you have a company?

-Yes.
-Are you licensed?

-Yes.
-What's the name of your company?

[Dwayne] DMB Electric, Inc.
-[Judy] Just a...

-Would you take a look at that, Sarah?
-Mm-hmm.

-It'll be under DMB...
-Shh!

...Electric Services, Inc.

And in what year was your company formed?

-Uh, this one...
-Shh! This...

This one, 2013.

-We had a prior one.
-[Judy] Shh!

-We had a prior one.
-[Judy] 2013?

[Dwayne] Yes, Your Honor.

Was that before
or after you did her job with him?

-Before or after?
-I had the license before.

No, the company.
I said was the company formed...?

-The company was established...
-Shh!

Careful, because she's
a whiz with the computer.

-[Dwayne] No, that's...
-[Booth] No. That's good.

-[Judy] Was your company formed before...?
-Yes, Your Honor.

[Judy]
Before you did the job with him?

Yes.

Okay. And what month in 2013?

-I'm... I don't know about the date.
-[Judy] Are you guessing?

-Yeah, I'm gonna guess... January... Yes.
-[Judy] Are you guessing?

Was it before or after...

you did the job with the plaintiff?

If you don't know the answer,
say, "I don't remember."

-I don't remember.
-Okay. Now.

The business was incorporated
March 20th of 2013.

[Judy]
Does it have any reviews?

Only four from the past
two years on Yelp, all positive.

By the way,
did you ever write a review for him?

-For?
-[Judy] Did you ever write a review

-for Mr. Burnley's company?
-Uh...

"Uh" is not an answer.

Did you ever write a review
for Mr. Burnley's company?

Stop shaking your head, Mr. Burnley.

Did you ever write a review
for Mr. Burnley's company?

-Uh...
-No.

[Judy] Okay.

I don't know what it is
that you didn't understand, sir.

You didn't say much.
You don't have to say much.

I got what went on here,
and I think it was mean spirited.

-And you're suing for $10,000.
-[Dwayne] That's right.

I think that their reviews

and the abuse
of the critique of your business

warrants the award of $10,000.

You have a counterclaim.
Which one of you has a counterclaim?

-I do.
-[Judy] Yeah.

I want to tell you something.
Your counterclaim is dismissed.

I think that you were a co-conspirator
in her writing these reviews.

-I was not.
-[Judy] Counterclaim is dismissed.

Judgment for the
plaintiff in the amount of $10,000.

-We've finished here. Thank you very much.
-[Booth] Your Honor...

-[bailiff] This court is adjourned.
-We're done.

♪♪

During the COVID shutdown,
when nobody had any work

in a small community of 5,500 people,

that's what they chose to do.

Hey, I'm glad it's behind me, man.
That's all I can say.

He was just getting his license,
and I helped him

begin his business,
and this is how he serves me.

I agree with the judgment,
but why $10,000?

That seemed a little high for me.

You can permanently hurt
somebody's business,

their livelihood,
if you write a negative review,

because people more and more

rely on the internet
when they seek a service,

rely on somebody else to say,

"I've had a good experience
or I've had a bad experience."

I believe, based upon the timeline
that we heard,

-Mm-hmm
-that the defendants wrote these reviews

for a reason other than
bad electrical work.

Because if there was bad electrical work,

that would have shown itself
between 2013 and 2018

when her fiancé redid the whole system.

Or it wouldn't have
passed the inspection.

[Judy]
Or it wouldn't have passed the inspection.

-So that, to me, is malicious.
-Mm-hmm.

I think you have to get
a real wake-up call,

-and to me, $500 doesn't do it.
-No.

It's malicious and I don't think
he has to show any real damages

other than the reputation of his business

has been sullied by someone
for malicious reasons

having nothing to do with work
that was performed nine years before.

And I'm perfectly
comfortable with that judgment.

♪♪

[narrator]
Have you been cheated?



[closing theme plays]