nosmokingbandit
Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Pennsylvania
...but the case is filed in NY.
A few months ago my family drove up to a trail about 5 miles from the top of PA (we live down near philly) and rented some ATVs to ride on the mountain. Naturally the renter had us sign a liability waiver saying that we are responsible for everything that could ever go wrong.
After riding for about 3 hours the ball joint on the front right wheel of the largest atv broke and flipped the atv over and down a hill (luckily my father, who was riding it, jumped off and rolled out of the way), causing quite a bit of damage to the front of the quad. The renter wants us to pay $2700 for damages and $2300 because the machine is not able to be rented without repair.
Every atv shop i've talked to has said that the only way a ball joint will fail is if the machine is not maintained at all. Any mechanic worth his salt will catch a bad ball joint long before it will break. Ball joints are tough little guys.
So i have a few questions:
1. Will we have grounds for disputing the liability waiver based on the fact that the machine was not maintained properly? Other than the ball joint, the winch, electric starter, and digital gauges did not work on the atv when we received it so obviously it was not maintained well. We didnt think much of that at the time because we assume he would have kept the drive-train in good shape even if extra features didnt work.
2. The rental place is located in NY, which is a good 6-7 hour drive. Will we be required to take a day or two off work and drive up to take care of this or is there any way to do this without wasting a ton of time?
3. We will be getting written statements from 2 atv shops' mechanics stating that the ball joint must have been defective and that 3 hours of riding wouldnt destroy one. What else can we gather to help us out?
4. This one is going to be a little messy. On the website of the atv renters there was a statement that an $18 mandatory insurance charge is required with each rental. Since this incident they have removed it from their site.
When my father called to rent the atvs he told them the models we wanted as well as the insurance for all of them of course. After talking on the phone with the owner after the incident he said the insurance was only required for State game lands, not private trails, so they didnt apply it even though we asked. I saved their site as a PDF when we got home when it still had the insurance charge listed, it does not have it listed now. I saved it as a PDF so the metadata would show the date i saved it and that it had not been modified (i'm a designer so i know this stuff
). Since we asked for insurance (though we have no record that we asked, only my father's word) and they neglected to charge it, does that offer any help to our case?
Sorry to be long winded, its kind of a huge mess.
I was in front of our group, so i didnt see the actual accident, however 2 other people did see it and would testify that it simply failed as he was going down a hill. I can personal attest to the fact that we were by no means abusing any atvs or being rough with them at all. Other than the waiver theres nothing going against us that i can find, whereas the plaintiff failed to maintain the equipment and apply insurance.
Thanks so much for any pointers, i really appreciate it.
...but the case is filed in NY.
A few months ago my family drove up to a trail about 5 miles from the top of PA (we live down near philly) and rented some ATVs to ride on the mountain. Naturally the renter had us sign a liability waiver saying that we are responsible for everything that could ever go wrong.
After riding for about 3 hours the ball joint on the front right wheel of the largest atv broke and flipped the atv over and down a hill (luckily my father, who was riding it, jumped off and rolled out of the way), causing quite a bit of damage to the front of the quad. The renter wants us to pay $2700 for damages and $2300 because the machine is not able to be rented without repair.
Every atv shop i've talked to has said that the only way a ball joint will fail is if the machine is not maintained at all. Any mechanic worth his salt will catch a bad ball joint long before it will break. Ball joints are tough little guys.
So i have a few questions:
1. Will we have grounds for disputing the liability waiver based on the fact that the machine was not maintained properly? Other than the ball joint, the winch, electric starter, and digital gauges did not work on the atv when we received it so obviously it was not maintained well. We didnt think much of that at the time because we assume he would have kept the drive-train in good shape even if extra features didnt work.
2. The rental place is located in NY, which is a good 6-7 hour drive. Will we be required to take a day or two off work and drive up to take care of this or is there any way to do this without wasting a ton of time?
3. We will be getting written statements from 2 atv shops' mechanics stating that the ball joint must have been defective and that 3 hours of riding wouldnt destroy one. What else can we gather to help us out?
4. This one is going to be a little messy. On the website of the atv renters there was a statement that an $18 mandatory insurance charge is required with each rental. Since this incident they have removed it from their site.
When my father called to rent the atvs he told them the models we wanted as well as the insurance for all of them of course. After talking on the phone with the owner after the incident he said the insurance was only required for State game lands, not private trails, so they didnt apply it even though we asked. I saved their site as a PDF when we got home when it still had the insurance charge listed, it does not have it listed now. I saved it as a PDF so the metadata would show the date i saved it and that it had not been modified (i'm a designer so i know this stuff
). Since we asked for insurance (though we have no record that we asked, only my father's word) and they neglected to charge it, does that offer any help to our case?Sorry to be long winded, its kind of a huge mess.
I was in front of our group, so i didnt see the actual accident, however 2 other people did see it and would testify that it simply failed as he was going down a hill. I can personal attest to the fact that we were by no means abusing any atvs or being rough with them at all. Other than the waiver theres nothing going against us that i can find, whereas the plaintiff failed to maintain the equipment and apply insurance.
Thanks so much for any pointers, i really appreciate it.
