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# Doctor awarded $3,500 after painters spray his car in Santa Monica garage
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/paint-spray/
- Published: 2002-11-04T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:50:42.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

A Santa Monica doctor whose car was accidentally sprayed by painters working in his office parking garage was awarded $3,500 last week.

Dr. Jack Connella, who was seeking the maximum amount of $5,000, said the damages to his Honda Accord were difficult to see, but serious nonetheless.

Two car washes had told him that buffing out the paint spots was not an option, as it might damage the paint’s protective layer.

So Connella, who told the court, “I don’t care that much as long as my car gets to be pretty okay,” got an estimate for a new paint job. The cost, he said, would be $4,800 to paint the car and $1,400 to hire a car while the work was being done.

Tony Kim, a manager for Four Seasons Painting, said his insurance intended to take care of the problem.

But Connella said the insurance company, which had been out to assess the car and offered to settle, never sent a check. In the beginning, the insurance company was very eager to resolve the dispute, he said, but it recently stopped returning phone calls.

After expressing his hope that the insurance company would take care of the matter, Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Pro Tem William Ireland ruled in favor of Connella for $3,500 plus court costs.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 4, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110402.pdf?ref=smdp.com)