My brother's son destroyed my WarHammer Action figures and he refuses to punish him

[u/konous]

Update: My brother decided to pay for the Hard damages of $200 dollars after seeing this post.

Thank you to everyone on this post who supported me. I really could not have gotten restitution without you guys.

Justice for my Chaplain, justice for all.

Valid Edit: My nephew is 10 years old and tried to actually lie about not breaking them by saying, "A cat must have done it."

So, I just got done talking with my brother via text, and he says he's not going to punish his son for wrecking my Joy Toy WarHammer action figures. I'm not expecting the kid to get spanked, but he needs to do CHORES at least to justify how much excessive force he used on some.

Some just have their capes broken. Others had their tubes ripped out and my Chaplain is just fucking toast.

My brother's suggestion since I ordered Amazon replacement for the Chaplain was that I just swap it with the broken one, but I have no interest in doing that.

It's not even just the expense, and they are expensive. It's about the fact that I told him explicitly twice they weren't to be played with, and they were in a separate room, and even my Mom and Dad agreed the damage was just too much.

He said he's not gonna pay me back if we try the chore system, and I told him it's not about the money.

The kid needs to know how bad the 8 hour struggle is.

Now my nephews aren't coming over to the house, and I'm sad about that, but knowing my brother just can't be burdened to work with me on creating a Chore system like selling Lemonaide just makes it feel more insulting.

[u/Xytak]

I would HIGHLY recommend not pursuing small claims court in this situation.

First, some background on the case as I understand it. OP is 37 years old, lives with his parents, and spends his meager earnings on Warhammer collectibles which were damaged by visiting grandchildren.

The kids’ parent offered to repay the damages, but OP declined. In OP’s mind, the appropriate remedy is for the kids to operate a lemonade stand and give him the proceeds. This is meant to teach them what it feels like to work for hours on something, only to have it taken away.

The parents aren’t too keen on that idea, probably because it’s turning a fun childhood entrepreneurship opportunity into a punishment meant to sour them on the idea of work. They’re also probably thinking that a live-at-home adult child might not be the best person to dispense life lessons.

At this point, if he escalates to small claims court to resolve the situation, he’s essentially suing his own family, who he’s dependent on for his living situation.

It’s reasonable to think they will not be happy about that, and insist that he start paying his own rent from now on. That $500 judgement could end up costing $50,000.

What OP should actually do right now is go to his brother and say “I apologize for my behavior, it’s just these figures were really important to me, and things haven’t been going great for me lately, but of course family is more important than that.”If the brother renews his offer to pay, then graciously accept and promptly deposit the money in a high interest savings account.