This sounds a lot more promising for getting the car back, but don't count on seeing one penny from the shop owner. It would be great if your brother gets compensated for the money he spent, or even the additional amount, but getting the car back is the most important part. Hopefully, he can take possession & it won't stay at Maaco or a neutral party location where he can be charged storage.
When I filed that suit against the shop that jerked me around, it was the same deal. Three times the amount because of fraud & deception, & done in a civil court, not small claims. I spent roughly $3000 on crap body work, spent almost $1000 on building materials for work I was doing in his building, & countless hours of labor doing it. We did have a verbal deal to trade some services for the remainder of the work, but I did have written proof.
I won my case for the full amount of almost $13,000.00 & he never appeared in court. The guy also didn't have a penny in his name, & had roughly $250,000.00 in outstanding judgments against him. (Smart, I suppose.) All his assets were in his wife's name, a luxury condo, several expensive cars, & nothing that was ever recently shown to be transferred out of his name. I guess it's a perfect way to really cover your tracks.
One thing I would suggest is to double check that the particular Maaco franchise, shop, building, or whatever this business may be, is actually his, & in his name. Your lawyer will know how to research that. You could theoretically get as far as being before the judge, & suddenly the guy produces documentation showing he doesn't own the shop, or responsible for any billing decisions. This will drag out the process even longer starting from scratch. (This happened to a friend of mine.)
