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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To sue or not to sue ?

270 replies

PussyGalour · 14/06/2009 11:50

That is the question.
Grap a cuppa this is long

I've posted on here before about this but situation has changed slightly so things have moved on.

We moved house 2 years ago and our beautiful cat whom we had bought at great expensive (£500) to bred from ran away or so we thought. As it happens after we'd literally walked/drove around the streets, put up posters for months another child at our daughters school went to another parent at the schools house and said oh look that's DD's cat.
So upon learning this we approached them and they basically said they thought he was a stray (yeah right he's clearly a pedigree) and he is chipped and had a collar on - this of course may have come off but that's why you chip them isn't it.
So they refused to hand him back and we didn't really know what to do because we didn't want a custody over a cat thinking they were taking good care of him.
One day out of the blue she called me to say the cat was ill and she'd taken him to the vets where they'd decided to neuter him, knowing damn well he's our cat I said they had better not, she said it was already done
Today he has appeared in our garden and we've caught him and caged him and I'm keeping him.
But I'm so angry about the fact we cannot bred from our own animal.
Bit of background he is the purest of pure, I spent literally 12 months looking for a cat of his quality, paid over the odds and drove 8 hours with the children in the back to collect him.
To bred from cats you have to wait until they are 12 months old, so he was literally just about ready when he went missing.
I reckon this whole excercise has cost me £5,000 in loss of income and cost of replacing and waiting for a new kitten to become old enough to bred.
So who would you sue, the woman for stealing our cat and operating on him or the vet for doing the op on a cat that was chipped and they didn't own ?

OP posts:
LadyThompson · 15/06/2009 16:02

Never mind about wannabe lawyers PG - my DP is a criminal barrister and I am afraid he rolled his eyes at your little tale.

It's interesting that you haven't responded to the queries about why you didn't pursue this two years ago. One of your many problems is that if your line of litigation is going to be lost income for breeding opportunities as you indicated yesterday, given that the cat has never sired any offspring prior to being neutered, you are going to struggle to prove that they would have been any good/valuable.

I suspect you are going to hire some rather scuzzy solicitor who is going to be happy to take your money to write a threatening letter to the poor sods who had the cat threatening to take them to court, hoping that they will cave in and offer to settle with some cash to save the stress of going to court. Mmm. Classy.

helsbels4 · 15/06/2009 16:06

I suspect you are entirely right, LadyThompson. Your last paragraph stated exactly what I was thinking!

BionicleBill · 15/06/2009 16:19

Lulu I'm not certain but the OP is clearly bloody bonkers as per her other, erm, contributions, so I think I'm going to leave her to argue with herself all day.

Oh and OP, you have no idea what my kids are called - so shut up will you.

BionicleBill · 15/06/2009 16:20

...and I certainly didn't make any money out of, erm, breeding them...

lal123 · 15/06/2009 16:26

when and how did you ever think you were going to make money out of breeding this cat given that you were happy (sort of!) for the other people to keep him? I think you'd need to prove that you have lost revenue - and to do that you'd need to show how you would have made money?

You are mad

Morloth · 15/06/2009 16:27

Do you know I am yet to meet an animal (of any sort) breeder who isn't at least a little unhinged.

I have met some nice ones, but all of them are a bit odd IMO.

Asana · 15/06/2009 17:22

I think PG is being deliberately unreasonable and/or stupid .

The fact of the matter is:

  1. You may have had a claim for theft two years ago when you discovered that the couple had your cat.
  1. Given that you pursued no further cause of action at the time (and no, simply asking for your cat back and accepting them saying no is stupid IMO if the cat was so important to you financially, regardless of whatever personal dross you spout), you acquiesced the ownership of your cat to the other couple. After all, there was nothing to stop you making a valid legal claim at the time. Frankly, you simply suggesting that you would call the police would most likely have led to them giving you your cat immediately without you having to take them to court.
  1. Given that you acquiesced and have allowed your cat to remain with the couple for two years(!), all they need to argue is they reasonably believed that you had accepted the transferred ownership of your cat and that you are estopped from making a claim against them for any costs, other than perhaps the original £500 cost of your cat. [You probably wouldn't even get that £500 back.]
  1. You have no valid claim against the vet. It is not standard procedure to check pets' identities when they are taken to the vet, unless the person taking them states that they are strays. The vet was entitled to assume (reasonably, I might add) that the cat belonged to the couple.

And no, feeling sorry for the couple doesn't cut it as an excuse. If your property meant that much to you, you should have taken all possible steps to retrieve it at the point at which it was taken from you, not wait two bloody years to do so.

That's just my two cents . Have fun in court - that is, if any court is happy to treat such a spurious claim seriously. And if a solicitor accepts your case at having a reasonable chance of succeeding i.e. they advise you that you can claim aggravated/exemplary damages (the money you could have made from your cat) as opposed to just compensatory damages i.e. the original £500, pass me their details. Methinks a phone call to the SRA about a code of conduct violation may be in order ...

Lucky I'm not a judge. I'd award you nominal damages of 1p for being so inept two years ago.

Swedes · 15/06/2009 19:54

Quattro - I'd be mighty satisfied to learn whether we are dealing with a civil or criminal case.

igglepigglegotobed · 15/06/2009 20:24

Isn't it obvious this is all about the money??

2 years ago you would have simply got your cat back....now your suing for cash

I also hope that you have a license for breeding and selling otherwise the only person who could end up with a hefty fine is you!

Assuming you do have a license and are treating this as a business. You would of have had business insurance which would of covered any loss of earnings and allowed you to claim.

Opening a court case could raise more questions than you would like it to as you would have to prove loss of earnings and could wind you in serious trouble if you do not have the relevant paperwork.

curiositykilled · 15/06/2009 20:29

I think PG is clearly unhinged after last night's completely insane explosion... Is it possible she imagined ever owning the cat and has just stolen a cat from some old couple? lol... that's what I'm hoping... That'd be much better than what she appears to be implying will happen. Let's hope the couple allow the case to court and are not bullied by her solicitor into settling. I suspect after all they've been through she's probably right and they will settle just to avoid more pain for their family. I am hugely disappointed that ppl like this actually exist, this is really nasty behaviour. Hope she doesn't explode with people at home like she does on MN... I'd be frightened for her DH/C's...

BionicleBill · 15/06/2009 20:42

Yes Curiosity that was my thought...she's got a mad baby name thread going atm, I just feel so sad about it, that someone so clearly suffering from a REALLY short fuse is having to contend with a small child in the near future. It's awful to think that way and perhaps she will be a much nicer person in real life than she is on here, but it did occur to me that she might not be in the best place mentally atm.

I just hope Bella doesn't see this thread, she would go purple and probably explode.

Quattrocento · 16/06/2009 00:39

We need an update on the cat action - is it all to be settled by a humungous out of court settlement as per the OP's dreams? Or has reality set in?

tigerdriver · 16/06/2009 08:47

Well I wonder if OP spent last night "stroking her pussy" as she did the night before.

Assuming this isn't some bonkers Mrs Slocombe fantasy then does anyone else feel sorry for this poor cat? He's probably missing his home, his normal food, his family. Or perhaps he's just a breeding machine to the OP and that doesn't matter.

cory · 16/06/2009 08:53

surely we've had this cat neutered before on Mumsnet?

cory · 16/06/2009 08:55

ah yes, as mentioned in the OP

where is the point in reviving this thread, since you got no sympathy last time?

ClaireDeLoon · 16/06/2009 09:47

Oh yes, and a quick search revewals he only cost £250 in the last thread

Quattrocento · 16/06/2009 10:15

LOL - you've got to link

ClaireDeLoon · 16/06/2009 10:25

Sorry - it is a previous posting name (as I said further down the thread I recognised the OP's style and her profession) and I don't think its fair to out a namechange in case it was done to preserve privacy. I shouldn't really have mentioned the £250 it just made me snort with laughter.

RumourOfAHurricane · 16/06/2009 11:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

tigerdriver · 16/06/2009 12:32

Sorry for the hijack ladies and cats

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