Six Black Roses
Junior Member
This legal question applies to a property damage mishap which occured in California.
Here's what happened:
On a certain, recent, Monday, repairs were conducted, by a local electric company, on a transformer atop a distributor pole which electricity is drawn from. These repairs were necessary because that transformer ruptured in a loud, flamboyant explosion, rendering the residents in the immediate area without electrical power.
Sometime between the manufacturing of the replacement unit and/or replacement parts, and the time of installation, the repairman dispatched by the electrical company has incorrectly performed the repairs, or has failed to notice the arbitrary nature of the [presumably faulty] transformer and/or the parts necessary for the repair.
It is undetermined if the repairman of this electric company's choosing was incompetent at the time of said repair, or if the electric company did not take whatever necessary and reasonable steps it should have taken to ensure the authenticity of the equipment and hence the safety of the many pedestrians travelling on the sidewalk under that transformer, and to ensure that no property damage occurs which very well could have been avoided had the electric company taken those steps.
On the hot Sunday evening, just following that Monday, my mother's luxury car was legally parked on the side of the road across one of my mother's properties, and there were left two small openings in the windows to avoid the heat buildup which any physician would deem not particularly healthy for any human being. Anyway, sometime between 6:30 PM and 10:00 PM, the [mineral, as I was told the electric company's representative said] oil spilled out, in a quick, bursting method, but the rupture was significantly different--quiet, inaudible, even! This was a leak, not a detonation caused in part by electrical energy.
The temperature during that Sunday evening was extremely hot, enough to cause heat stroke in most human beings. The mineral oil that sat in the transformer was most definitely not cooler than the air temperature, and was enough to jeopardize the well-being of a humab being if it would come in contact with skin.
What if, could have, and might've are never things that'll hold up in court, unless there are laws explicitly commanding that precautions be taken to avoid the potential what-if. More on this a tad later.
The roof and hood, and of course, windshield were all drenched in oil, making the vehicle unsafe to operate including because of, but not limited to, the severely blurred view of the road in front of the car. There's oil inside the car, on the seats, the steering wheel, seatbelts, carpet, etc. There's oil under the hood that has caused smoke to come out from under it. There's oil on the engine compartment.
By the way, did I mention that the windshield wipers need to be replaced?
My sister came to my mother after receiving a phone call saying what happened. My sister then dialed this electic company's emergency hotline, and finally at approximately 1:00 AM (now a Monday, one week from the time the repair was done) a representative of this company came out. Photographs were taken by the representative, and photographs were taken earlier by a neighboor. It was messy. The road was covered in oil.
The representative instructed my mother and sister to ask for a claims form. A Monday later, now two weeks after the repair, we got the claim form.
That is a story of an electric company's negligence.
And now a jump to the present. Ah, but what fine jump it is, indeed. Anyway...
1) Are there any laws in California that require electric company's to be responsible about this sort of thing? It's all grand that nobody came out with a scalded... scalp, but children are not to be left unattended in a daycare, even if no harm was done during the instance of absence. True, **** happens and employees **** up, but the fact that this happens a week after [insufficient] repairs are made won't make this electric company look good in court, right?
2) I took the car in for an estimate to have it cleaned, and the estimate came out to being just fifty bucks shy of an even thousand. This is what the "property" damage is at, assuming that after we clean the vehicle, it won't be then determined that the whole car needs a new coat of paint.
3) Due to the nature of my mother's self-employment, using her vehicle is crucial to getting things done, to get money, to feed herself, me, me, me, and my sister. My sister's kind of getting fat, but that's something a judge would most likely say is irrelevant. This means that if she cannot get to where she needs to be--walking isn't an option--she stands the inevitable risk of losing paying tenants. And if there are no paying tenants, she runs the risk of losing some of the houses she owns because they're not all yet fully paid for. It's true, she's self-employed.
But here's the tricky bit... she works only about 1008 hours per year. Though it's true that she isn't losing a penny in practice, she now is nevertheless facing lost earning capacity. The hours that she could have allocated for business purposes, she now has to allocate to getting this mess cleaned up. And at nearly $120/hr, her time is money. And as of now, she's had a good 8 to 10 hours taken from her life, hours she'll never, ever get back, hours that she was without the car she should have otherwise been using for business purposes during those hours.
If this has merit, will it be persuasive to mention in the claim letter that additional spent time going back-and-forth will more or less simply end up costing the company more?
4) The body shop at Toyota estimated that the car will be there for two to three days, just to get it cleaned. This means that my mother will have to incur another expense, which is to rent a comparable, luxury car (why should she be forced to give up the comforts of what she's accustomed to, just because an electric company hired a moron, or assigned an otherwise smart man with installing faulty equipment?). I printed out a quote from Avis saying it'll be $500 for three days. Oh yes, there's insurance. Why should she have to drive without insurance when her Toyota is happily insured, albeit filthy? Will they tell us to go screw ourselves, or will they settle to avoid the hassle of going to court?
5) My mother's is not informed of her rights, whatever they may be, so she seeks out the help of someone who might let her know. I know that I cannot practice law because I don't have the paper which lets me, but I'm not sure on whether or not I'm allowed to give legal advise, if unprofessionally. And even then, where's the line between I'm-just-someone-doing-research-for-you-even-if-it-happens-to-be-of-legal-nature and Mr. Devils Advocate?
Can I charge her for this? If so, what rate can I get away with? Don't say five bucks an hour, and most definitely don't say "100k/hr-mwahahaha".
Can I put "consultation with legal advisor: $XXX" and not risk doing something illegal myself in doing so? Or would "legal advice: $XXX" be more advantageous as far as liability issues are concerned?
6 Her skin came in contact with this oil, which may or may not be detrimental to her health. Anything here that I could cleverly word to get a settlement? I already have a speeding ticket to worry about, and I don't want to tie up my time in court for this kind of trivial thing.
7 Now don't laugh, but the gasoline which was consumed while travelling to the car dealership just 17-20 minutes away totalled to being... $11.94544, according to my calculations. This is gasoline she wouldn't have to blow money on if only the electric company didn't install defective equipment, or have equipement incorrectly installed. This gasoline costs money. This is money my mother would get to keep, plain and simple, if it weren't for the negligence of this electric company. Will they think this is cute, or will they think we have a tedious monster of a lawyer working with us?
Thank you, thank you all.
Here's what happened:
On a certain, recent, Monday, repairs were conducted, by a local electric company, on a transformer atop a distributor pole which electricity is drawn from. These repairs were necessary because that transformer ruptured in a loud, flamboyant explosion, rendering the residents in the immediate area without electrical power.
Sometime between the manufacturing of the replacement unit and/or replacement parts, and the time of installation, the repairman dispatched by the electrical company has incorrectly performed the repairs, or has failed to notice the arbitrary nature of the [presumably faulty] transformer and/or the parts necessary for the repair.
It is undetermined if the repairman of this electric company's choosing was incompetent at the time of said repair, or if the electric company did not take whatever necessary and reasonable steps it should have taken to ensure the authenticity of the equipment and hence the safety of the many pedestrians travelling on the sidewalk under that transformer, and to ensure that no property damage occurs which very well could have been avoided had the electric company taken those steps.
On the hot Sunday evening, just following that Monday, my mother's luxury car was legally parked on the side of the road across one of my mother's properties, and there were left two small openings in the windows to avoid the heat buildup which any physician would deem not particularly healthy for any human being. Anyway, sometime between 6:30 PM and 10:00 PM, the [mineral, as I was told the electric company's representative said] oil spilled out, in a quick, bursting method, but the rupture was significantly different--quiet, inaudible, even! This was a leak, not a detonation caused in part by electrical energy.
The temperature during that Sunday evening was extremely hot, enough to cause heat stroke in most human beings. The mineral oil that sat in the transformer was most definitely not cooler than the air temperature, and was enough to jeopardize the well-being of a humab being if it would come in contact with skin.
What if, could have, and might've are never things that'll hold up in court, unless there are laws explicitly commanding that precautions be taken to avoid the potential what-if. More on this a tad later.
The roof and hood, and of course, windshield were all drenched in oil, making the vehicle unsafe to operate including because of, but not limited to, the severely blurred view of the road in front of the car. There's oil inside the car, on the seats, the steering wheel, seatbelts, carpet, etc. There's oil under the hood that has caused smoke to come out from under it. There's oil on the engine compartment.
By the way, did I mention that the windshield wipers need to be replaced?
My sister came to my mother after receiving a phone call saying what happened. My sister then dialed this electic company's emergency hotline, and finally at approximately 1:00 AM (now a Monday, one week from the time the repair was done) a representative of this company came out. Photographs were taken by the representative, and photographs were taken earlier by a neighboor. It was messy. The road was covered in oil.
The representative instructed my mother and sister to ask for a claims form. A Monday later, now two weeks after the repair, we got the claim form.
That is a story of an electric company's negligence.
And now a jump to the present. Ah, but what fine jump it is, indeed. Anyway...
1) Are there any laws in California that require electric company's to be responsible about this sort of thing? It's all grand that nobody came out with a scalded... scalp, but children are not to be left unattended in a daycare, even if no harm was done during the instance of absence. True, **** happens and employees **** up, but the fact that this happens a week after [insufficient] repairs are made won't make this electric company look good in court, right?
2) I took the car in for an estimate to have it cleaned, and the estimate came out to being just fifty bucks shy of an even thousand. This is what the "property" damage is at, assuming that after we clean the vehicle, it won't be then determined that the whole car needs a new coat of paint.
3) Due to the nature of my mother's self-employment, using her vehicle is crucial to getting things done, to get money, to feed herself, me, me, me, and my sister. My sister's kind of getting fat, but that's something a judge would most likely say is irrelevant. This means that if she cannot get to where she needs to be--walking isn't an option--she stands the inevitable risk of losing paying tenants. And if there are no paying tenants, she runs the risk of losing some of the houses she owns because they're not all yet fully paid for. It's true, she's self-employed.
But here's the tricky bit... she works only about 1008 hours per year. Though it's true that she isn't losing a penny in practice, she now is nevertheless facing lost earning capacity. The hours that she could have allocated for business purposes, she now has to allocate to getting this mess cleaned up. And at nearly $120/hr, her time is money. And as of now, she's had a good 8 to 10 hours taken from her life, hours she'll never, ever get back, hours that she was without the car she should have otherwise been using for business purposes during those hours.
If this has merit, will it be persuasive to mention in the claim letter that additional spent time going back-and-forth will more or less simply end up costing the company more?
4) The body shop at Toyota estimated that the car will be there for two to three days, just to get it cleaned. This means that my mother will have to incur another expense, which is to rent a comparable, luxury car (why should she be forced to give up the comforts of what she's accustomed to, just because an electric company hired a moron, or assigned an otherwise smart man with installing faulty equipment?). I printed out a quote from Avis saying it'll be $500 for three days. Oh yes, there's insurance. Why should she have to drive without insurance when her Toyota is happily insured, albeit filthy? Will they tell us to go screw ourselves, or will they settle to avoid the hassle of going to court?
5) My mother's is not informed of her rights, whatever they may be, so she seeks out the help of someone who might let her know. I know that I cannot practice law because I don't have the paper which lets me, but I'm not sure on whether or not I'm allowed to give legal advise, if unprofessionally. And even then, where's the line between I'm-just-someone-doing-research-for-you-even-if-it-happens-to-be-of-legal-nature and Mr. Devils Advocate?
Can I charge her for this? If so, what rate can I get away with? Don't say five bucks an hour, and most definitely don't say "100k/hr-mwahahaha".
Can I put "consultation with legal advisor: $XXX" and not risk doing something illegal myself in doing so? Or would "legal advice: $XXX" be more advantageous as far as liability issues are concerned?
6 Her skin came in contact with this oil, which may or may not be detrimental to her health. Anything here that I could cleverly word to get a settlement? I already have a speeding ticket to worry about, and I don't want to tie up my time in court for this kind of trivial thing.
7 Now don't laugh, but the gasoline which was consumed while travelling to the car dealership just 17-20 minutes away totalled to being... $11.94544, according to my calculations. This is gasoline she wouldn't have to blow money on if only the electric company didn't install defective equipment, or have equipement incorrectly installed. This gasoline costs money. This is money my mother would get to keep, plain and simple, if it weren't for the negligence of this electric company. Will they think this is cute, or will they think we have a tedious monster of a lawyer working with us?
Thank you, thank you all.
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