Appeal from a judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Queens County (Diccia T. Pineda-Kirwan, J.), entered September 21, 2005. The judgment, after a nonjury trial, awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $4,015.

Judgment affirmed without costs.

In this small claims action in which plaintiff sought to recover damages for defendant automobile repair shop's unauthorized work on his car and failure to return said car, we find that the trial court rendered "substantial justice . . . between the parties according to the rules and principles of substantive law" (CCA 1807).

A small claims judgment may not be reversed absent a showing that there is no support in the record for the court's conclusions, or that the court's determination is otherwise so clearly erroneous as to deny substantial justice (see Forte v Bielecki, 118 AD2d 620 [1986]; see also Blair v Five Points Shopping Plaza, 51 AD2d 167 [1976]). Moreover, the deference which an appellate court normally accords to the credibility determinations of a trial court "applies with greater force" in a small claims action, given the limited scope of review (Williams v Roper, 269 AD2d 125, 126 [2000]).

In the instant case, there is sufficient support in the record for the trial court's conclusions. The court apparently believed plaintiff's version of the facts to be more credible than defendant's version, and there is no reason for this court to disturb the court's findings on liability on that basis. Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed.

Weston Patterson, J.P., and Belen, J., concur.

Golia, J., taking no part.
Decision Date: November 21, 2007