OTISFIELD – For the Delahantys, it started nearly a year and a half ago when they relied on a self-employed mechanic to fix their Saturn station wagon.

The vehicle had been hesitating while passing. Because they would be using the car – which they planned to tow behind their motor home – periodically during a Florida vacation, they decided to have it checked out.

At first, they say, the mechanic told them he would have to rebuild the transmission, at a cost of $1,700. Later, after taking it apart, he said he found some broken parts and tacked on an extra $1,000. The total bill was $2,747.

They borrowed money from their vacation savings to pay for the job.

After driving it around Florida less than 400 miles, the car started shifting into low gear on its own. It got worse. Looking in the rearview mirror one day, Michael Delahanty saw a cloud of smoke billow out behind the car.

He pulled over, jumped out and peered under. A dark fluid was gushing out. A tow truck hauled the car to a Saturn dealer, where the Delahantys were told their transmission had not needed rebuilding in the first place. It only needed a new valve, a common repair item on that model.

But now they would need a whole new transmission because the mechanic had clearly not used the special tools needed to pack the bearings, they were told. Their new transmission would cost $3,690.67.

Added to the cost of the rebuild, they’d spent $6,437.67. The car’s resale value, they later learned, was just $5,400.

Moreover, they spent a week of their Florida vacation without a car.

Getting their days in court

Back in Maine, they paid a follow-up visit to the mechanic. At first, he argued he could not have made a mistake, but he eventually agreed to sign an IOU promising to repay $1,500 of the $2,700 they’d paid him by September.

That was May 2003.

They waited. Four months went by. They heard nothing, despite a letter from them in July reminding him of his promise.

In September, after speaking with his landlord, they found out the mechanic had moved out of the shop he had been renting. He later called to say he had not forgotten.

By February, the Delahantys decided they could wait no longer. They filed papers in small claims court, seeking the $1,500 he had promised to repay.

They hoped the court process would help them recover their money.

The basic facts of the Delahantys’ case are contained in court documents; additional details of their story were gleaned from in-depth interviews.

During their first day in court they said they realized the process wouldn’t work the way they’d imagined. Looking around the courtroom, they could see that the only people who showed up were the ones suing. No defendants were there, despite being told to appear.

Their mechanic had not come. Somebody else appeared in his place, saying the man had a family emergency. The judge continued the case for two weeks, allowing the mechanic to explain the emergency. He never showed up.

In May, the judge ruled in their favor. But they never got a chance to present their case. They won by default.

But just because they won didn’t mean they’d get their money.

Act 2

In order to collect what they were owed, the court clerk told them they needed to start a whole new legal process, called small claims disclosure. That is when the party bringing the suit must prove that the defendant they successfully sued can actually afford to pay what the court said is owed.

In July, the mechanic did show up for the disclosure hearing. The judge told him and the Delahantys to go into the hallway and figure out how much and how often the defendant should pay.

The mechanic tried to argue again that he didn’t owe them the money. They said his chance to argue the merits of the case had passed. They had a judgment.

He fished a wad of bills from his pants pocket and handed it to them: $200. He agreed to pay that amount on the seventh day of each month until he had paid back the $1,500. The judge OK’d the arrangement.

If he misses two payments, the Delahantys can ask for another hearing, the judge said. In the meantime, they won’t get their hopes up, Michael Delahanty said.

“The chances of us getting all of our money back are pretty slim,” he said.

Not only does Delahanty doubt the credibility of the mechanic he had once trusted to do the right thing, he said he also has lost faith in the court system.

In addition to the thousands of dollars they had paid for the transmission work, they’d spent $77 in court filing fees, registered letters and copying costs.

“We’re not wealthy people” Priscilla Delahanty said. “I don’t see how people in dire straits can do it.”

It also cost them time, sitting in court those mornings waiting for their names to be called or filling out and filing the legal paperwork required.

Lucky for them, they said, both are retired schoolteachers.

“If we had to take the time off from work, I don’t know what we would have done,” she said.

“This process just seemed to be exceedingly long,” he said. “Would we have done it if we knew what would happen? No. Probably not.”