Plaintiff appeals from so much of a judgment of the Small Claims Part of the Civil Court, Bronx County, entered on or about August 21, 2001 after trial (Nelson Roman, J.) as awarded defendant damages in the principal sum of $3,850 on his counterclaim, which, as offset against plaintiff's recovery of $2,000 on the main action, resulted in a net judgment in defendant's favor in the principal sum of $1,850.

PER CURIAM:

Judgment entered August 21, 2001 (Nelson Roman, J.) modified, without costs, and counterclaim award reduced to the principal sum of $1,850, resulting in a net judgment in the plaintiff's favor in the principal sum of $150.

We find unauthorized and excessive the damages awarded to defendant on his small claims counterclaim, in an amount exceeding the defendant's ad damnum as well as the court's monetary jurisdictional limit (see, CCA 1801, 1805[c]). The record and the ends of "substantial justice" (CCA 1807) permit a counterclaim award of no more than $1,850, a recovery consistent, inter alia, with the defense testimony as to the nature and value of the work done on plaintiff's behalf and defendant's own trial admission that he previously "let it go" or [*2]forgave payment on at least one of the video editing projects underlying his counterclaim due to plaintiff's financial and health conditions.

This constitutes the decision and order of the court.