Quandry(was Help needed in Tuolumne County) [RE-wrenches]

[matthew tritt]

Bob-O,

I know you're right about the liability issue. Way back when I was in the
boating field, I did a bit of marine surveying on some widely diverse
classes of floating objects. Some were just that; places for people to live
that (hopefully) never went anywhere under their own power. At the other end
of the spectrum were the big buck yachts and big buck owners.

Since a disproportionate number of expensive boats tend to be owned by
lawyers and doctors, marine surveyors learned early-on to protect themselves
from possible litigation by including a clause in the contract which
specifically excluded them from litigation in the case of future loss of
property or life aboard a vessel that they had surveyed, and given a clean
bill of health. (I know of one case where a boat's owner lost a couple of
fingers in the auto-pilot drive chain. He sued everyone who had ever touched
the boat, going clear back to it's builder in 1933!!)

It seems to me that it would be a wise move, especially in the case of doing
repairs and modifications to existing systems, to include a similar
non-liability clause, even if it might not stand up in court. In the case of
low income customers, people tend to be more understanding of the situation
they may be exposing you to.

I did some work on a system way in the outback in this county which had been
installed by a solar water heating and woodstove installer, where the DC run
from the panels (located in the shade of a hill) to the battery shed was
done with a completely un-fused, direct-burial, 2 conductor #12 Romex line,
buried 6" at the deepest. It was over 60' to the battery room. The wire then
was run through a hole virtually ripped through the siding of a corrugated
garage wall, with nothing to protect the wire from the razor-sharp metal.
The bank of swollen L-16s was inter-connected with various wires no larger
than 1/0, had no fuse at the + terminal and nothing at the inverter end
(also run through this same metal siding. The owner had very little money
and the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" attitude (except her language was
worse).

I had her sign a paper relieving me of liability for anything except the
items I specifically worked on.
This was a good thing since she also had her brother, son and nephews
messing around with it on the weekends! They managed to blow a few breakers
and destroy at least one generator, but never did much lasting damage. I
finally wiggled out of this quicksand by increasing my rates to the point
where she wouldn't pay for my trips. Not that I didn't want to help any
longer, it just got a bit too crowded with relatives!

Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob-O Schultze, Electron Connection" <econnect at snowcrest.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2002 8:07 AM
Subject: Re: Quandry(was Help needed in Tuolumne County) [RE-wrenches]


> Matt ETAL,
> The obvious difference here is that if your car breaks down because
> of some mechanic's goof, you get inconvenienced but not dead. Nor do
> you lose the car and everything in it. Well, maybe in LA!
> The damn problem with this litigious society of ours is that you CAN
> get hurt by helping someone. I've worked too freakin' hard for too
> many years at building my business to have it torn down by some jerk
> (who probably moved here from LA) to trash it. I'm not advocating
> that we let ALL those folks who made bad vendor choices stew in their
> own mess, But I AM saying that we have to be damn careful when taking
> on someone else's disaster. VERY damn careful.
> Bob-O
>
> >Jeez-O-Pete. I can't see why there's such a problem with helping people
out.
> >You take your car to the garage, the wrench does the fix, and you drive
it
> >home. If the car breaks again, what happens? You take it back (if it's
the
> >same problem) and he gets to do it again, Right? If something happens to
the
> >same car later, do you sue the mechanic for having worked on it? Only if
you
> >live in L.A.!
> >
> >Seriously folks, help people if they need help. It's not going to hurt
you
> >that much.
> >
> >Matt
>
> --
> Bob-O Schultze, Electron Connection
> PO Box 203, Hornbrook, CA 96044
> 800.945.7587 or 530.475.3402
> fax 530-475-3401
> www.electronconnection.com
>
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