Elderly Woman Sacked with 8,000 Dollar Judgment

Zhermen Begiashvili is a seventy-seven-year-old woman who lives at 5 Akhmeteli Street in Batumi.  In 2003, she bequeathed her flat to Medea Beridze's son.  However, Begiashvili later changed her will.  Beridze took Begiashvili to court and demanded that she reimburse him for eight thousand dollars in expenses.  The court issued a default judgment against Begiashvili after she did not show.  Begiashvili argued that she had not received a summons and that she considers the default judgment to be unfair.

Begiashvili said that she changed her will because Beridze abandoned her. "I called Medea’s mother when she stopped visiting me.  She said that her daughter had abandoned her, too. That's why I changed my will.  Boria Samsonadze is my new heir."

Beridze subsequently sued Begiashvili and demanded to be reimbursed the eight thousand dollars she had already spent on Begiashvili.

Begiashvili talked about inaccuracies in Beridze’s suit.  "If the flat had been repaired, the floor would not be ripped up, the toilet destroyed, and it would have had hot water.  She lied about looking after me for three years because two years have already passed since I revoked the old will.  Beridze did not buy a new sofa and armchairs; she only repaired the old ones.  The television set they brought was not new, either.  She used to send me food twice a week. She also lied that she used to give 100 lari – what did I need that money for – and paid forty lari for my utilities.  She says that adds up to eight thousand dollars."

The new heir, Boria Samsonadze, produced receipts proving that Beridze had not paid forty lari a month for Begiashvili’s utilities.

Begiashvili also talked about what Beridze had done to her flat.  "I did not like green color in the room, and they painted it red [according to my wishes].  [However,] they did the rest according to their wishes, even though I told them no.  In the end, I allowed them to do anything they wanted with the flat since I was going to leave it to them.  They installed a permanent sink on the balcony.  I had nice Czech furniture in the kitchen and they replaced it with new furniture.  My fridge was too big for the kitchen so they took mine and replaced it with their smaller one.  In other words, what she put in the house was already there.  When we counterclaimed, the court refused to entertain our suit.  Beridze wants compensation for the things she brought to my house, but she does not subtract from that figure what she has already taken from me.

The court heard evidence on the amount in repairs.  Beridze’s side presented evidence that repairs cost 2609 GEL, while Begiashvili’s side said that this estimate was inflated and that true repairs cost 1753 GEL.

Beridze could not remember the exact amount of money she had demanded from Begiashvili.  [For example], Beridze could not recall the contested fact in her suit that she had paid 100 GEL a month to Begiashvili.  "I demand the sum that the court levied against Begiashvili. I am not a swindler.  She, herself, conceded that I repaired her flat.  I live with my parents. At that time, I had money with which to purchase a flat, but instead I spent that money on [Begiashvili]."

Beridze's attorney, Goderzi Goradze, said that Beridze and he prepared the complaint together.  He said that, "we approximated damages with averages.  Thus, we only asked for the average amount of money that Beridze could have spent on Begiashvili.  It could have been more.  We settled on eight thousand dollars as an accurate approximation.

However, there was no caregiver agreement between Begiashvili and Beridze, which according to Section 2 of Article 949 of the Georgian Civil Code, Begiashvili should not have to reimburse Beridze for any expenses incurred.

On August 18, Zhermen Begiashvili was ordered to pay eight thousand dollars to Beridze because of the default judgment.

Begiashvili’s lawyer, Kote Nemsitsveradze, argued that the judge should not have delivered a decision without Begiashvili being present at the trial.  “We did not know that the court hearing was scheduled for the next day since we had not received any notification.”

Judge Futkaradze said that because the [assigned] judge is currently on vacation and because his assistant, Lela Gorgoshadze, refused to assist us, we could not determine whether the defendant had signed the summons.

Begiashvili accused the court of bias.  “[At a preliminary hearing,] Judge Futkaradze did not allow me to make a statement.  I cannot speak Georgian well, and I had interpreter for several minutes at the trial.”
 
At the reading of the decision, Judge Futkaradze stated the following: "If the defendant does not attend the trial despite having been sent a summons, then a default judgment is to be awarded to the plaintiff.”

At present Begiashvili's flat is shuttered by court order until she pays the eight thousand dollars in damages.  Her attorney has already appealed the default judgment, though a judge has yet to consider the appeal.  When Judge Futkaradze returns from vacation, he will decide whether to vacate his earlier decision.

Maka Malakmadze, Batumi