Lawsuits: Broken Plate

[DICK BEATON]

Re the broken plate....

Odds are that the plate was already broken.  The noise was the crack
getting longer.
Plates dont break from bringing a piano up to pitch as it was once there
when the piano was manufactured. They break only if the casting was already
defective or weak. If one could look at the crack, it would be possible to
tell whether part of it is old or not.   Good luck!

Dick RPT
----------
> From: Les Smith <lessmith@buffnet.net>
> To: pianotech@byu.edu
> Subject: Re: Lawsuits: Broken Plate
> Date: Tuesday, April 01, 1997 1:40 PM
>
> 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
> >
> >
>