Colorado Company Tried to Pay $23,500 Settlement in Loose Change: 'It Required a Forklift to Move'

On Monday, a judge ruled that the company acted "in bad faith" and had to pay in a more conventional way

A Colorado welding company decided to pay a subcontractor a five-figure settlement in an unconventional way: in loose coins.

JMF Enterprises initially paid Fired Up Fabrications $23,500 in change weighing 3 tons, per the Associated Press — a gesture that was later rebuked by a judge.

The matter stems from a lawsuit filed against JMF in 2022 over an alleged breach of contract, The Washington Post and CBS affiliate KCNC. reported.

According to the court documents, Fired Up Fabrications was hired as a subcontractor to do welding work on an apartment building, per the outlets. In the suit, Fired Up alleged that JMF made only partial payments for the job, despite their repeated requests to receive the agreed-upon amount in full.

Over the summer, the two parties reached a settlement, in which JMF agreed to pay Fired Up $23,500 by August, reported The Washington Post.

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In August, Danielle Beem, an attorney for Fired Up Fabrication, received a delivery to her office location from a driver of a flatbed truck, per KCNC. It turned out the delivery consisted of boxes containing the settlement in loose coins that weighed over 6,500 lbs.

The delivery was so heavy that "it required a forklift to move," the outlet reported.

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"I think the thought was my clients would have to accept it and it's a giant waste of time and a major F-U," Beem said.

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In court documents, JMF's lawyers claimed that the coins "constituted a tender of the settlement funds, and therefore, JMF has complied with the terms of the agreement. The settlement agreement did not outline any specific form for the payment," per KCNC.

Lawyers for the company claimed they had no intention of harassing Fired Up Fabrications and that the settlement agreement did not stipulate how the money had to be paid, the Associated Press reported.

PEOPLE reached out to Beem and Giovannie Camacho, the lawyer for JMF Enterprises, for comment.

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On Monday, Judge Joseph Findley ordered that JMF pay Fired Up in a more conventional way, the AP reported, citing court filings. The judge also determined that JMF acted “maliciously and in bad faith."

Additionally, an amount of $8,092 in legal fees was tacked on to the $23,500 settlement that JMF has to pay, per the news agency.

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