How do we collect money from another business that owes for equipment?

Full question:

We have a signed and dated Purchase Order for equipment we sold Wings etc in Fort Wayne - The quote was for a little over $107,000 and he gave us $50,000.00 down leaving a balance of $57,000. Now he doesn't want to pay us because his contractor did a little bit of work that he thinks we should pay for. He never called us about this matter so we knew nothing about it. When we asked him for the telephone number of his contractor he would not give it to us leading us to believe he was not telling the truth about the so called work. We helped the contractor out when we were there installing the equipment and cannot believe that he would charge us for anything they may have done for us. The owner should have done the decent thing if there was anything wrong and called us to fix it if it was with any of our equipment. We sent him a past due Invoice and told him that if it isn't paid immediately we would take other measures. Is there some kind of lien we can use?

• Category: Contracts
• Date: 04/07/2025
• State: Indiana

Answer:

The repair terms would be governed by contract law and the warranty applicable under the sales contract. Generally, a product must be fit for its intended use. There are implied warranties in every sales transaction that the goods sold are fit for the ordinary purposes for which such goods are used. This is called the "implied warranty of merchantability".

If you obtain a judgment for breach of the sales contract and that judgment goes unpaid, the judgment may be used to place a lien on the defendant's assets. In essence, the unpaid judgment is used to have the court order the sheriff or other authority to attach or seize the judgment debtor's assets. This process is sometimes referred to as executing a judgment.

The following are IN statutes:

IC 34-55-1-1 When a judgment requires the payment of money or....

When a judgment requires the payment of money or delivery of real or personal property, the judgment may be enforced by execution as provided in this chapter. When the judgment requires the performance of any other act, a certified copy of the judgment may be served upon:

(1) the party against whom the judgment is given; or

(2) the person or officer who is required by the judgment or by law to obey the judgment;

and the person's obedience to the judgment may be enforced. If the person refuses to obey the judgment, the person may be punished by the court as for contempt.

IC 34-55-1-3 There are three (3) kinds of executions:

There are three (3) kinds of executions:

(1) Execution against the property of the judgment debtor.

(2) Execution against the person of the judgment debtor.

(3) Execution for the delivery of the possession of real or personal property, or such delivery with damages for withholding real or personal property.