A question of liability

[Wimblees@AOL.COM]

In a message dated 3/25/00 12:19:15 PM !!!First Boot!!!, 
bases-loaded@juno.com writes:

<< There's a first time for everything....
 
 I have a customer with a 100 yr old full size upright that has a lot of
 very loose pins in the center section, so on Thursday of this past week I
 rolled the piano away from the wall, put it on its back on the tilting
 truck, applied CA, tipped it back up, and stopped back after 4 other
 tunings to tune the treated section.  It was perfect, and the customer
 couldn't have been happier.
 
 Then yesterday I get a call that her husband is pretty upset that the
 piano left "dents" in the floor where I moved it out.  Not caused by my
 tilting truck... it seems it was the piano casters.  She didn't think it
 amounted to much, but asked me to stop by on my next visit to the area to
 see what I could do.
 
 My question is this:  to what degree am I liable if it was caused by
 their piano and their casters, and all I did was roll it out from the
 wall.  She claims it is not a marring of the finish, but a denting of the
 wood that the husband is unhappy about.  
 
 I have liability insurance, but wanted some input from the group as to
 whether any of you has been in this situation before.
 
 Thanks
 
 Mark Potter
 bases-loaded@juno.com
  >>


First of all, since you do have liability insurance, if this case should go 
as far as a trial, the insurance will pay the lawyer to defend you. That is 
why I carry liability insurance. Not because I am afraid I will damage 
something, but to pay the lawyer to defend me in case anyone tries to sue me 
for something I didn't do. 

A friend of mine used to own a movie theater. He told he his company was sued 
many times by theatergoers who claimed to slip on water in the restroom. All 
of these cases were thrown out, because the water in the restroom was 
"incidental" water. The water wasn't put there by the owners of the theater, 
but by people using the restroom. 

The same can be said about the dents in the floor. They were put there by the 
piano, not by you. You had to pull the piano out from the wall to service it. 
The customer could have pulled the piano away from the wall, and caused the 
same damage. You didn't do it "on purpose" or by neglect. 

I hope your customer understand this. Ask him if he has an alternative 
solution as to how to move the piano away from the wall. Look for a couch or 
other heavy piece of furniture that has caused similar damage. 

Best of luck

Willem