Lawsuits: Broken Plate

[Les Smith]

My sincere condolences to your friend. This is every technicians night-
mare. You don't say what kind of piano is was; whether it was an upright
or grand; what it's age was, etc.--this may be important. Also you didn't
say HOW MUCH you friend was being sued for, and whether this was a "small
claims" action, or not.

The first thing yur friend should do is to consulte with an attorney. Even
if this is a small claims case, he can be represented by lawyer.It sounds
like he will need one. As far as your testifing as to the condition of
the plate, before it broke, seeing as how you never even SAW the piano, I
don't think that your testimony would carry a great deal of weight (sorry
about that!). A somewhat better approach might be to find someone quali-
fied to testify to the value of the piano before the plate broke. Thus if
this instrument was an old, neglected, no-name junker, it's value before
the plate broke might have been minimal at best--say $100, or so. At the
saame time, the owner by be suing for $5000! You might want to try to es-
tablish the owner's cost basis for this piano. How much did he pay for it,
or did he, perhaps, get it for free? Also, in court I would ask him to
produce a service record for the piano, showing what kind of regular care
and maintenance it has received while he's owned it. Once again, these are
all things best discussed with a lawyer, and the sooner, the better. Good
luck to you and your friend! I can imagine how he felt when he heard the
plate let go. :(((((((((((((((((

Les Smith
lessmith@buffnet.net

On Tue, 1 Apr 1997, Marcel Carey wrote:

> Dear List & All
>
> A friend of mine who doesn't have access to this list is presently being
> sued for a plate that broke after he attempted to tune a piano.
> As he was checking about the condition of the strings by raising a few (not
> even to pitch mind you), he broke 3 strings. So he told the owner he would
> not tune the piano since the strings were too rusty. He replaced the strings
> and left the piano as it was. He was almost out of the door when he heard
> "THE NOISE". Now he is asking me to testify as to the plate probably was
> faulty to begin with. I wasn't there so I have no evidence. I suspect he is
> wright but I don't know how to go about this. I would like to help him and
> was wandering if any of you had had that kind of situation before. If yes,
> what kind of argument did you use in court, and, were they winning arguments.
>
> Thank's in advance for your input.
>
> Marcel Carey, RPT
>
>