02x05 - Slander on the Movie Set?

[bunniefuu]

You were making a movie?

Yes, Your Honor. We made a job for him.

This kid couldn't even order pizza,
Your Honor.

But you have to pay him.

Even if he's doing a terrible job,
you still have to pay him.

Give me a break. All I know is
I came to work today, I expect to be paid.

[narrator]
This is Judy Justice.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Christian Sanchez
is suing his former employer,

Juan Vasquez, for unpaid work
and defamation of character.

[bailiff]
Court come to order. All rise.

Be seated, please.

-Hello, Judge.
-Hi.

Case number 2007.
Sanchez versus Vasquez.

-Thank you.
-[bailiff] You're welcome.

Mr. Sanchez, how old are you, sir?

I'm 26 years old.

And what is your educational background?

I have a bachelor's degree in film
that I got from Full Sail University.

-I'm currently...
-[Judy] From... Slowly.

I'm sorry.

You have a bachelor's degree from...?

Full Sail University.

[Judy] Where is that?

[Christian]
Orlando, Florida.

[Judy]
Orlando, Florida. That I can hear.

You have to understand, when you're
dealing with someone of my age,

you have to, sort of,
factor that into your speech.

People who are 26
may be able to follow you.

I'm senior. I need people to speak slowly
so that I can follow them.

[Christian]
I got you.

[Judy]
So, you got a bachelor's degree

from a university in Florida
and graduated when?

I graduated in 2018.

And from there,
what kind of work did you do?

From there, I jumped around a little bit.
I did...

Okay, you jumped around.
Did your family live in Florida?

-No, ma'am.
-Where do they live?

They live in Beaumont, Texas.

Did you live with them at all in Beaumont?

No, ma'am.

[Judy]
After college?

Not until the pandemic.

Okay, well, the pandemic was in 2020.

Yes.

[Judy]
So, you graduated in June of 2018,

and then the pandemic started
on or about March of 2020.

Yes, ma'am.

[Judy] And March of 2020,
you went home to your parents' house?

-[Christian] Yes.
-[Judy] And you stayed there until when?

I'm still currently there.
I started going back to school, actually.

When did you start going back to school?

My first classes were
in December of last year.

-[Judy] In Texas?
-Yes, ma'am.

Okay, great. So, you actually had

a year and a half out of school
when you were hopping around?

Yes, ma'am.

So, I want you to tell me who
you worked for in that year and a half.

I was an intern on a documentary.

[Judy]
Okay, and when was that?

That was... about a few months
after I graduated.

So maybe, September, October?

Yeah, probably around there.
I did a few independent films.

Okay, and what kind of work
did you do for them?

Just kinda depended what they needed.
It was mostly PA stuff.

-[Judy] Like a PA?
-Yeah.

[Judy] Like a PA. And for that work,
were you paid as a PA?

Yes, ma'am.

And how much were you paid as a PA?

They paid me $75 a day.

-[Judy] Pay you in cash?
-[Christian] They paid me in cash.

Okay, so you did those
couple of little projects and then what?

I was also waiting tables at the time.

Okay, well, you gotta eat.

Right. After the pandemic hit,
uh, my lease was up.

I moved back home, decided I would
go back to school to get a tech job.

I'm going for cyber-security right now.

I had heard through a family friend...

-[Judy] Okay, let's stop there.
-Okay.

This case is
I don't think so difficult,

but relatively interesting for me
'cause we don't get them all the time.

Mr. Vasquez, you were making a movie?

Yes, Your Honor.

Is this the first movie you ever made?

No, Your Honor.

[Judy]
How many movies have you made?

This was film number five for me.
Written, directed, produced.

Is it a fiction piece or a documentary?

It's actually based on a true story.

[Judy]
So, it's a docudrama?

Correct, yes.

See that? Are you impressed with that?

-[laughs]
-There you go, a docudrama.

[Judy]
How long a film?

Ninety to a hundred min...
We're still in post, still editing. So...

Keep your voice up.
Approximately how long?

A hundred minutes.

What was your budget?

-It's still in-in...
-[Judy] About what was your budget?

Then you're gonna tell me
where you got the financing.

Roughly 120,000.

[Judy]
Where did you get the money from?

A lot of it was my money
and other producers.

[Judy]
How much did you put in?

Over 80,000.

And you've got other people in
for about 40?

Yeah.

[Judy] Did you make money
on your other films?

I have, yes, in the past.

Okay. This is what the case is about.

Mr. Sanchez says that he was
hired by your company.

And he was hired by your company
to work on this last film

that you were doing
and it was a paying job.

And at the end of the period,
he was not paid.

And in addition,

he says that when he complained
about not being paid,

you put out there on social media
that you weren't paying him

because he was on drugs.
Is that what the case is basically about?

Basically. It wasn't on social media.

It was through text messages
he accused me of it, but...

-[Judy] Text messages?
-Yes.

Well, that means almost social media.
[laughing]

If it doesn't come to me
by the U.S. Postal Service,

I call it social media. I know...

Okay. Did you answer an ad for this job?

No, I, uh, heard about it
through a family friend.

And when did you meet Mr. Vasquez
for the first time?

We didn't actually meet
face to face until about

Saturday, July 10th, 2021.

[Judy] Did you communicate
via text messages or...

-Yes, ma'am.
-...emails?

Well, when was the first
either text message or email?

The first text message was
on Monday the 28th, 2021, of June.



Of course.

And this one, too. Sorry.

-[Judy] Okay. Anything else?
-Um...

[Judy]
Okay, so you first met by email.

You say you have one spot
available for him as an internship,

and then,
practically immediately thereafter,

you say somebody's family is sick
in the crew.

You have a spot for him
as an assistant director.

- So, Your Honor...
-[Judy] I'm reading this.

-You have to tell me what that means.
-Yeah.

"I need a first AD.

Someone's family is sick
and they can't do it."

-[Juan] Correct.
-[Judy] So, what is an "AD"?

He's basically gonna assist me
as a director. Everything from...

-[Judy] Assistant to the director?
-Correct.

Okay. "I need a first AD.
Someone's family is sick."

-So, that's different from an internship?
-Yes, ma'am.

Well, I mean, we do have internships
where people don't get paid,

and then you have internships
where they do get paid.

-Mm-hmm.
-[Judy] Most people now pay their interns.

Okay, and when you met, because
clearly, the last email that I just read

suggests that you were
approaching the door

and you're two minutes away,
and then you met the defendant.

[Christian]
Yes, ma'am.

Tell me about that conversation.

[theme music playing]

The thing that I find
most troubling here, actually,

for the both of you,
is he says that you told him

not to tell the rest of the crew
that he had COVID

because they would freak out.

[theme music playing]

[narrator] Christian Sanchez claims
filmmaker Juan Vasquez

owes him for unpaid work.

Juan says Christian was an unpaid intern.

Okay, and when you met, because clearly,
the last email that I just read

suggests that you were
approaching the door

and you're two minutes away,
and then you met the defendant.

Yes, ma'am.

[Judy]
Tell me about that conversation.

So we met, we sat down. I kinda told him
a little bit about my background.

Like I told you before,
he kinda went over, like,

what he was expecting me to do.

Just a second. I want you to tell me
what he told you that he wanted you to do.

Managing the set,
creating schedules, calling extras,

making sure that they were there on time.

[Judy]
Is that what you told him?

Yes. Basically assisting me,
whatever I needed.

Okay, that sounds like more than a PA.

-We didn't ask for PAs. We didn't...
-[Judy] No.

But what you outlined was clearly more.
What did you agree to pay him?

Never agreed to pay him anything. So...

[Judy]
Well, how could you do that?

He was an intern. He was presented to me
as an intern.

No, no, no, not after this text message.
He said he was looking for an internship.

And you said to him,
"I have a better role for you.

I need a first AD.
Someone's family is sick."

Whose family was sick?
The name of the person.

I don't recall.

Okay. When you did a budget,
did you have a budget for a first AD?

-Uh, no, we didn't...
-[Judy] No. Careful...

Did you have a budget for a first AD?

No, not that I remember.

I usually don't use a first AD.
So, the terminology...

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Listen,
you know who produces this show?

You want to be careful
with what you say around people,

-you know, who are buying your product.
-Sure. Sure.

Right? 'Cause you're
gonna be presenting them with budgets

eventually, hopefully, for you.

There's no question that if I got
this text from you, Mr. Vasquez,

I would say, "Oh, my God,
I'm gonna get a different job,

a better role, because he says
I have a much better thing,

somebody who was supposed to do it
got sick, they can't do it."

That's a much different thing
from what you describe

as bringing me iced tea
and setting up the coffee.

That's a different role.

What did he tell you
he was going to pay you, sir?

He told me...

Verbally, he told me that...

[Judy]
Look, careful when you talk to me.

At that meeting, that day,

what did he tell you
he was going to pay you?

$150 per day for 14 days.

How many days
did you actually work on the set?

-On the set, I worked 14 days.
-That's a lie.

I got COVID on the last two days,
and he asked me to work from home,

and I still scheduled
and did all that stuff.

I never asked him to work from home.

You got COVID the last two days.
So you were actually there 12 days?

Physically there,
but I was still working for him.

[Judy]
I don't know that. Who knows?

-How do I know that?
-[Christian] I have texts...

I would like to see the work
that you did from home

on day 13 and 14.


not including the two.

Okay.

On those specific days, I have it
on my phone. Could I pull it up?

[Judy]
No, I wanna see what you did.

If you did work, you sent emails out,
you sent scheduling out,

and you would probably have to have
a conversation with your boss

and say, "I have COVID, but
I'll do whatever I could do from home."

-I have all of that. Yes, ma'am.
-I'd like to see it.

-Your Honor, if I may interject.
-[Judy] Yeah.

So he shows up to the set,
sick with COVID, gets everybody sick.

I had to call the next day of filming
because of that...

Are you talking about
after he was there for 12 days?

Yes, I'm talking about that particular...
that particular part, but...

I'm talking...
He was there for 12 days.

He didn't have COVID for 12 days.

We don't know that.

Well, who knows that?
I don't know if you have COVID.

-We just got to tested, Your Honor.
-Who knows if you have COVID?

Who knows if I have COVID?

All I know is I came to work today,
I expect to be paid.

I wouldn't come to work if I was sick
and laying in bed and feeling nauseous...

Your Honor, if you had a remote position,
that'd be different.

He didn't have a remote position.

I'm not talking about his two days.
He was there 12 days.

No, he did it throughout the course
of the project.

He was never on time, he...

[Judy]
I don't care if he was never on time.

If he's never on time, sir,
then you fire him.

[Juan] There was days he was not there.
There was days he was not on set.

Listen to me.

-Okay.
-[Judy] If he's never on time,

then you tell him
don't come back after the second day.

But if you let him come for 12 days
and do whatever he does...

I mean, you know, Mr. Vasquez,

I'm gonna make this
as painless for you as possible.

There are some employees that I have had
over the years that were terrific.

Mm.

Some not so terrific, some terrible.

The terrible ones
who were really terrible,

who I would have liked to have fired,
period,

I couldn't do it
because of Human Resources.

[Juan] Sure.

They have a whole protocol,
volumes, like an Encyclopedia Britannica,

what you have to go through to
fire somebody who's not doing their job.

Right.

But you have to pay him
until you can fire him.

If you have him come to work,
even if he's doing a terrible job,

you still have to pay him.

Now, if he goes home 'cause he's sick
and you're not giving him sick leave,

and you don't agree for him
to work remotely, that's on him.

-Does that sound fair to you?
-Yeah, absolutely.

I'm so glad. Unless, of course,
you agree to have him work remotely,

-then you have to pay him for 14 days.
-Right.

It starts right there, Your Honor.
And then the next two days follow it.

[Judy]
JV. That's you?

Yes, ma'am.

JV, that's you. So you did, in fact,
confer with him from home.

Tell him to order food, to picking it up.

I don't care if he worked for you
for a half hour. He's not your friend.

The thing that I find most troubling here,
actually, for the both of you,

is he says that you told him
not to tell the rest of the crew

that he had COVID
because they would freak out.

Correct.

[Judy] And he didn't tell
the rest of the crew

-that he had COVID.
-As far as I know.

[Judy] Well, you told him not to,
and he said okay.

Well, you have to know,
as a good citizen,

that's not the right thing to do.
You do understand that?

Yeah, and, you know,
by not having him on the set,

we thought that was proper protocol.

No, you're supposed to notify people
who you came into close contact with.

You know, I remember they
had this whole contact tracing.

-I know people call all the time and say,
-Well, but the reality is, Your Honor,

-"We were out together a month ago"...
-everybody that was on the set...

What?

The reality is,
everybody that was on the set,

we did discuss the fact that he had COVID.
So people knew that.

[Judy]
I don't care whether people knew that.

It says here, "I won't say anything
to the rest of the crew, like you said."

[Juan]
Yeah, 'cause I didn't wanna create a...

[Judy] "I understand that you don't
want everyone to freak out."

I just find that troubling.
In any event, he clearly...

It's just like yelling "b*mb"
in an airport,

you know, that would create
a bigger hysteria.

Well, that's what COVID is.
COVID is a b*mb in an airport.

And we conveyed to everybody on the set
what was going on.

The reality is, this young man
was presented as an intern,

never said paid internship.

Once he got on the set, he tried to
strong-arm us, then demanded the money.

Once he had all the information
on the set... We didn't hire him.

We didn't post a job for him.

We made a job for him
'cause a producer called me up.

This is when nepotism goes bad.

This kid couldn't even order pizza,
Your Honor, he spent $300 at Domino's.

Who spends $300 at Domino's?

Mr. Vasquez, then you fire him!

-[Juan] I should have fired him.
-Do you understand?

-[Juan] I should have fired him.
-Then your recourse is to fire him.

And you're a little company
that doesn't have an HR department,

say, "You know what?"
What's your first name?

-Christian.
-[Judy] Christian.

"Christian, you're a nice guy,
but it's not working out here.

We're gonna pay you for three days
'cause that's what you were here.

Don't come back,
I'm gonna get somebody else."

And we should've did that, Your Honor.

-[Judy] That's what you should've done.
-Yes.

But that's not what you did.

You continued to use
whatever limited services he provided,

-even when he was home with COVID.
-He worked limited, yes.

Even when he went home with COVID,
you continued to ask him to do things

for your company and for the film,

and that you can't do
without compensating him.

[theme music playing]

You gave him a job,
and if he didn't work out, say...

What was the name of that woman
from that show

that says "you're fired" or something?

-The Weakest Link.
-Weakest Link. That was the lady.

She was terrific. Well, anyway,
you say "you're fired." That's easy.

[audience laughs]

[theme music playing

[narrator] Christian Sanchez
has accused his former employer,

Juan Vasquez, of not paying him
for 14 days of work.

Juan claims Christian was incompetent
and never a paid employee.

Okay, even when he went home with COVID,
you continued to ask him to do things

for your company and for the film,

and that you can't do
without compensating him.

You can't. Okay.

So you owe him $2,100
'cause I assume you've paid him nothing.

Now, let's get to the second part
of your claim, which is defamation.

That I'd like to see.

I mean, if you're gonna be a producer,
if you're gonna make films, sir,

you have to understand, say,
"You're not working out, you're fired."

Something that I would love
to be able to say a lot.

I agree, I should've fired him right away.

"It's not working out, you're fired."

Without risking my house
and my, and my car and my dog.

I was taking him on as a, as a,
as a, basically...

[Judy] I don't care what you were
thinking, that's not what you said.

A producer called me, asked me
to take him on, that's why I took him on.

He actually called me and told me
how good of a job I was doing.

[Judy] Just a second.
It doesn't require an answer. Okay.

And I can show the messages,
how he came to be on the set.

-He was presented as...
-[Judy] I don't... Just a second.

I don't care how he was presented to you.

If your Aunt Tilly said,
"Do me a favor, this is my godson."

[Juan]
It was his Aunt Tilly.

"He hasn't been able to get a job
since he graduated from college."

He hasn't been able to get a job
since he graduated from college.

"He's home... He's home in the attic of
his parents' house, playing the guitar."

[Juan]
He lives with his parents.

"We want him to have a job."

-It's irrelevant.
-Gotcha.

You gave him a job,
and if he didn't work out, say...

What was the name of that woman
from that show

that says "you're fired" or something?

Well, anyway, you say "you're fired."
That's easy.

Do we remember the name of that woman
from England who had a show

where she said, "You're out, get out"?
I don't know, she was terrific.

-Let me see.
-[audience laughs]

-The Weakest Link.
-Weakest Link. That was the lady.

Perfect. Thank you.

[Juan] That's a direct text message
to him. I never posted it on social media.

-[Judy] Oh. Just a second.
-It was actually a group text.

So, Mr. Vasquez, in here, you say to him...

This is the second part of his case,
which is for defamation.

-And... that's okay. He didn't defame you.
-Okay.

Sir, he said
they're taking you out of the credits,

but you were never promised credits.

In the contract it says I am.

[Judy] Let me see where in the contract
it said you'd be in the credits.

And I didn't even know
there was a contract. I thought...

-He's also done this before.
-Shh! Shh! Shh!

It says you employed him as an actor.

Your Honor,
I'm signing actor agreements every day.

He put that in front of me to sign.
Why would I sign an actor agreement

-for a first AD?
-[Judy] Just a second.

Sir, is this the agreement
he put in front of you?

-Or did you...
-I sign actor agreements every day on...

-Da-da! You're a business guy.
-[Juan] Yeah.

I'm a business lady.
I don't sign...

That looked like an actor agreement,
that's why I signed it.

[Judy] Actor agreement,
that's what it says.

Yeah. He's not an actor.

Don't sign it.

It says you agreed to pay him
$150 a day

for four days of sh**ting.

-Fourteen.
-[Judy] Fourteen days of sh**ting,

and that he will be responsible
for paying all the taxes on it.

-So, he was gonna be paid in cash.
-I didn't write that out, Your Honor.

Kevin, would you show this to him, please,

and see if he can identify
that as his signature?

I'm going to check here
to see if it's his signature.

It looks like his signature to me.

Mr. Vasquez, it appears to be the same
signature that you use to sign the answer.

-Yes, it is, Your Honor. Yes, Your Honor.
-[Judy] So that's your signature?

Yes, Your Honor.

Okay. And this says, "Actor shall receive
a credit for acting in the film."

Well, that's ridiculous.
You didn't act in the film, right?

-No, ma'am.
-[Judy] Well, we're gonna strike that out,

because you can't perform that
because you didn't act in the movie.

-Do you understand?
-I understand, ma'am.

[Judy]
Okay, very good.

And it's clear that whatever this says,
based upon this,

if you delete one part of a contract,
let me see if I remember.

If part of a contract, Sarah,
is impossible to perform...

Then it's not fully integrated.

And one party acts on that contract,

and you can retain part of the contract

because of services that were rendered
pursuant to the contract,

-you can eliminate one part.
-[Sarah] Yes.

So I can eliminate the actor part
of getting credit.

So you're not getting credit on this.

You're entitled to the $150 a day.

As far as the defamation is concerned,
sir, what he said in here was clear.

He said he was told by someone else,
which is very possible.

And the only thing that you can produce
for me today is this fellow...

who said you tried to put together
a little bit of a drug transaction.

-Are you...?
-No.

[Judy]
Well, then you're irrelevant.

If you can produce...,
because if he says... told me,

then he's not saying you did this.

He put it in a text to you
that this is what he was told.

He said it in retaliation.

Whenever I served him the night before,
the very next morning,

-he sent me that text message.
-[Judy] I don't care.

I don't care.
He's not a great businessman.

Judgment for the plaintiff
in the amount of $2,100.

Thank you very much. We're finished.

[bailiff]
This court is adjourned.

[theme music playing]

I thought she was very fair.

I'm really, really happy
with how the judgment came out.

He was an intern. Interns aren't paid.
It never said "paid internship."

He tried to avoid signing a contract
at first.

The reality is, with the budget,
we would've loved to pay the kid,

but he cost us more money
than he was actually worth.

He lies constantly.
Nothing's ever his fault.

He always makes up a new scenario
in which he's the victim.

He couldn't even order pizza.
I mean, who spends $300 at Domino's?

Handed me the actor's agreement,
told me to sign it.

No more nepotism. If I don't know 'em,
I haven't vetted 'em,

I don't want them on the project.

A little bit weird, but it had everything.

And this kid's gonna go be
a cyber-security guy.

Always save your receipts, dude.

Always just keep any sort of
communications, even if it's a phone call,

send a text or an email
that just recaps what you said.

I was so happy to vent for a moment
on the current inability to fire

inept people and to fire people
who aren't doing their job,

which has been getting worse
over the last quarter of a century.

I actually believe that HR is a vital
service for people who are unjustly,

based on something
other than their performance,

-treated badly by an employer...
-Mm-hmm.

and harassment in the workplace,
I think, is important.

Anyway, I got that out of my system.

-The contract?
-Yeah, the contract.

I think it was unenforceable, to begin,
because I think the form

was clearly erroneous.
It wasn't a proper form.

-He's not an actor. He wasn't an actor.
-He wasn't an actor.

-Both of them knew he wasn't an actor.
-An actor, right.

However, it was signed by both parties
and there was substantial performance

on behalf of the plaintiff
by showing up to work every day,

performing his duties under the contract.

So, as soon as he substantially performed
the contract,

the defendant can't then claim
it's unenforceable.

First of all, because he's not an actor.

-Exactly.
-Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah.

-Thank you.
-No problem.

[narrator]
Want justice?



[theme music playing]