Toller wrote:
I suppose this is as good a place to ask as any...

My son drove my car into a ditch. The tow truck operator winched it out,
but slightly damaged a panel. He pointed it out and said it was
unavoidable. It isn't much, but any sheet metal damage is expensive to fix.

Legally his position is untenable. If the damage was unavoidable he should
have advised my son first and gotten authorization to do it; but he didn't
say a word about possible damage, he simply gave my son a price and went to
work. That is adequate to show negligence and liability in small claims
court.

But I don't want to be a jerk about this. If it truly was unavoidable
(except perhaps by means that would have cost more than the damage) then I
don't want to hassle him.

On the other hand, if the tow truck operator screwed up and carelessly
damaged my car, I don't want to be chump and absorb the loss.

You see the dilemma? Any advice here? No, no, I mean helpful advice...



Sometimes you just have to sigh, take your lumps and get on with life.
I'd be fairly certain that the tow truck operator didn't deliberately
try and damage that panel.

Similar thing happened to my daughter when her car's electrical system
suddenly was "dead"; no lights, cranking or anything. She called AAA and
the guy who came was either too stupid to find the obvious (a dirty
battery cable connector.) or more likely wanted the extra income for a
tow job, so he told daughter there was no hope of getting it going on
the spot and towed her car 20 miles to the mechanic we've used for years
and trust.

He cleaned the battery cable in a jiffy, and the engine started right
up, but then he discovered a hole ground through the front edge of the
car's transmission pan through which all the fluid had vamoosed. The guy
had towed the car by lifting the rear end and either got it too high or
went over some lousy pavement.

Fortunately our mechanic is the kind of guy who'd rather braze up the
hole himself rather than stick us for a new transmission pan, so the
whole bill from him was about ninety bucks, including a new gasket,
filter and fluid.

I considered us lucky to get out of it for that little. Hell, you can
hardly get a good dinner and a couple of glasses of wine for that here
in Red Sox countrey these days.

Happy Holidays,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."