Cracked plate

[Jon Ralinovsky]

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Todd,
Check out the Journal issue on plates and breakage; I think it's 
November 2000, but I could be wrong.  There's a very good article on 
an experience that a member in my chapter had with a broken plate and 
the consequent lawsuit (the suit was dropped because the plaintiff's 
expert witness withdrew from testimony).  It could save you a lot of 
trouble to give a copy to your client.  If you need more information, 
feel free to contact me.

Respectfully,
Jon

>List,
>
>This week I experienced my first cracked plate.  It's not an 
>experience I would like to have again.  The piano was a Kimball 
>console which, according to the customer, had not been tuned in 18 
>years by the previous owner.  The current owners had recently 
>acquired it for $300 and wanted it tuned up so the wife could play 
>Christmas music.  I opened the piano up and found a dead mouse and 
>several mouse droppings (the mouse was mostly decayed), which, in my 
>opinion shows that the piano hadn't been tuned recently and probably 
>not played in several years, either.  I noticed no other problems 
>besides a few broken Schwander butt springs, so I got out my SAT III 
>and checked the pitch.  The piano was 185-200 cents flat.  I did the 
>first pitch raise with no overshoot and then checked pitch 
>again.  The SAT III reading now was about 35-40 cents flat, so I 
>programmed in a 25% overshoot and began tuning the piano at A0.  As 
>I crossed the bass/tenor break, I heard a LOUD "bang" which was much 
>louder than any string breakage I'd ever heard, so, fearing the 
>worst, I got down under the keybed and looked at the plate.  The 
>plate had cracked right through the hitch pin area.  The crack was 
>all the way through the plate and I called the customer over and 
>informed her of the plate breakage and that it was probably not 
>feasible to repair the plate, and even if it was, there could be no 
>guarantees of success on such a repair.  She understood that the 
>piano was a complete loss, I collected a minimum service call fee 
>and left.
>
>Two days later, her husband calls me up demanding that I reimburse 
>him for $300 or provide him with an acceptable replacement.  I 
>informed him that I had no intention of doing so, because the plate 
>cracked due to lack of structural integrity.  He informed me that 
>his opinion was that the plate cracked due to my incompetence and/or 
>negligence.  I then explained the pitch raise procedure that I 
>performed and told him that to the best of my knowledge, I had 
>exercised due professional care and was not responsible for the 
>demise of his piano.  As a parting comment, the customer said he 
>would just have to take me to small claims court and recover his 
>money.  He could be bluffing, but then again, he seemed pretty 
>adamant about collecting his $300.
>
>So, that brings me to the questions - Have you or anyone you know 
>been sued because of a cracked plate?  If so, how did you defend 
>yourself in court and what was the ultimate outcome?
>
>Todd L. Mapes
>Associate Member PTG
>Fort Smith, AR

Jon Ralinovsky
Piano Technician
Department of Music
Miami University
513/529-6548
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