NY Supreme Court Judge Alleges Moving Cos. Held Property Hostage, Demanded ‘Ransoms’

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A retired New York Supreme Court judge is among a group of plaintiffs who allege New Era Relocation LLC and several purportedly related entities have held hostage “valuable household goods, cherished family heirlooms and other property” once it’s loaded onto moving trucks. 

The 19-page proposed class action lawsuit out of New York claims New Era Relocation, Moving Solutions LLC, Gold Standard Relocation, Relocate Us LLC and several individuals have engaged in a “scheme” of holding consumers’ property hostage in exchange for apparent ransoms of “tens of thousands of dollars or more.” According to the complaint, Gold Standard Relocation then “actively engages itself as if it is intervening to find the property” before later denying liability, but only after “inducing consumers into contracts with them and taking their money.” 

“Through a common and uniform course of conduct, Defendants knew or should have known that they did not intend to honor their obligations under federal laws and contracts they procured from customers,” the second amended complaint alleges. 

Alleged in the complaint are violations of the Carmack Amendment to the U.S. Code, which the lawsuit says imposes strict liability upon common carriers for damages to goods in transit, among other causes of action, including “deceptive business practices.” 

Retired New York Supreme Court Judge Jeffrey Spinner, one of three plaintiffs, says he engaged Gold Standard Relocation for a quote for packing and transporting an interstate move of 3,200 cubic feet of household goods and furnishings from Union County, South Carolina to Suffolk County, New York on July 17, 2020. During those communications, the complaint says, Judge Spinner specifically asked if Gold Standard was the mover, and not a broker, and was told affirmatively by an individual defendant that the company was in fact a licensed mover and not a broker, and that its moving and transportation services were provided by New Era, represented to be Gold Standard’s wholly owned subsidiary.

Per the case, the plaintiff, between July 17 and 29, 2020, paid a contract deposit of $4,917 for moving and transportation services by Gold Standard and New Era, and the judge’s items were packed and loaded onto a tractor trailer from July 30 through August 2. Once the truck departed with the judge’s household items, the plaintiff paid an additional $4,500 to one of the individual defendants, the suit says. 

On December 4, the judge emailed and called New Era to arrange for delivery of his household goods to his new residence in New York, the lawsuit goes on. As of that date, the plaintiff had a balance due of $9,300, broken into $4,500 for moving and $4,800 for storage in a climate-controlled warehouse, the case says. 

On December 4, however, the plaintiff, the suit says, was informed that his balance had increased to $10,542 as a result of the defendants’ allegedly false claim that his property amounted to 4,200 cubic feet, and not 3,200 cubic feet as previously agreed upon. The case claims this increase in cubic feet is impossible given the trailer used for the move had a maximum load of 3,270 cubic feet. 

Days later, on December 19, 2020, the defendants texted Judge Spinner demanding $6,282 more in cash, bringing the plaintiff’s total to $15,582 in cash as opposed to the initial $9,300 binding price, per the suit. According to the complaint, the plaintiff, upon receiving a bill of lading from the defendants, saw that his name was written by a customer service representative as “Jerry” instead of “Jeffrey” in one listing, and that at the bottom was “a squiggly line when Plaintiff never signed that.” 

“A layperson can see the signatures of Defendants’ customer representative and the one purporting to be Plaintiff’s as the ‘Customer’ at the bottom of that Bill of Lading are signed by the same person who signed at the ‘Customer Representative’ line,” the suit claims, adding that the supposedly forged document also had three different, conflicting dates. 

The judge alleges that he demanded by phone and email from December 4 through December 23 that the defendants deliver his property to his Long Island, New York home, yet they allegedly refused unless he paid a “cash ransom” of $6,282. The judge further alleges that in response to a letter from his counsel, a representative claiming to work for New Era left an expletive-filled message on his answering machine and threatened to “auction your stuff.” 

Per the suit, the plaintiff was able to obtain preliminary injunctive relief to prevent the unlawful disposal of the household items he alleges were held hostage for a more than $15,500 ransom. Judge Spinner alleges that he found his goods, after two court orders, “moldy, damaged and destroyed in a dirty trailer on the side of the road” in Bayonne, New Jersey. 

The suit’s other two named plaintiffs similarly allege the defendants damaged their goods and sought more money than initially agreed upon to return their property. One plaintiff alleges the defendants made the memory of his deceased son “a nightmare” by holding his property hostage for more cash before stealing it during a move. The other plaintiff alleges Gold Standard “refuses” to return her missing property, including some items that belonged to her deceased father, or compensate her for damages.

The lawsuit looks to cover a proposed class of all consumers who, within the three years preceding December 2020, when the complaint was initially filed, entered into a contract with Gold Standard Relocation after being “led to believe they were the moving company” and to whom Gold Standard denied liability for property damage during the move by claiming they are only brokers. 

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