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12 gallons of wine!

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mkathyf

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Ohio

I purchased two, 6 gallon buckets of grape juice, with the intent to make wine. When I picked it up, the business put the buckets in my trunk.
the buckets resemble a 5 gallon paint bucket or 5 gallon mud (for drywalling).
If you are familiar with these buckets, they lock down very tight....they are difficult to pry open.
Well, I was the second car back, at a stop sign on a side road. There was a school bus at the cross road in front of us. Once the school bus unloaded the children and turned off the lights, the car in front of me proceeded to make a right turn. I then began to move up to the stop sign (maybe 3 mph) While I was moving forward, the school bus made a wide turn towards me...causing me to tap on my breaks. At that time I heard the "thud" and then the "glub glub of the liquid. Then entire 12 gallons spilled in my trunk....into may back seat and all the way up to my pedals. The business I bought the juice from said they are not responsible for what happens once I pick up the wine. But, I claim and KNOW that they did not tightly secure the lids on both buckets. When I fill the buckets with water, secure the lids properly and rock them back and forth and throw them over...nothing. The lids remain on tight. I now have a $2700 bill, for the damage to my car and their insurance company basically said...too bad. My insurance company will cover it...with my $500 deductible, but my rates COULD go up.
Any advice? Don't they have responsibility for this?
 


Some Random Guy

Senior Member
You are the driver of the vehicle. It is your responsibility to secure your cargo. This includes preventing it from shifting during normal and extreme driving. It also includes your checking the cargo to make sure that it is internally secure (has the lids on tight.)

The juice merchant is not responsible for your lack of care with the product they sold you.
 

xylene

Senior Member
I find your estimate of 2700 in damages over a spilled non toxic liquid extremely high.
 

Mass_Shyster

Senior Member
This boils down to whether the business had a duty to secure the lids. They may have, since they loaded them into your vehicle. But they may not have, since you were the operator of the vehicle.

If you decide to sue in small claims, you should contact your insurance company and let them know. Since they are paying out $2200, they'll want to be reimbursed. You may have to sue for the full $2700 and pay the insurance company $2200.

If a small claims court awards half (like I've seen them do in many cases), you'll need to determine who gets what amount. You may end up keeping $250 and paying the insurance company $1100.
 

tranquility

Senior Member
I agree with Stevef. The responsibility often lies with the one who loaded the vehicle. That's why the home improvement stores supply twine/rope, but won't help you load the lumber in the vehicle.
 

mkathyf

Member
They did load it into my vehicle. (I couldn't pick these buckets up if I wanted to).
My claim is that the lids were never secured properly. They are the same type of buckets in which you would purchase 5 gallons of paint. Taking these lids off is difficult.
I have filled the buckets with water. I have secured the lids properly and I have violently shaken them, kicked them over, thrown them down...and the lids remain securely on the bucket.
I don't think tipping over, in my car, when I tapped on the brakes going no more than 3mph, would be any more extreme than the test I have performed.

Now the merchants I bought the juice from are telling me that they never even touch the lids. They come from California already sealed and are never touched.
I find that hard to believe that these buckets have been loaded on a truck, shipped across the country, unloaded again, moved around in a warehouse....without spilling...and then, a little tip in my car makes the lids completely pop off.

They should hold some responsibility for making sure their product is secure.
If you buy a gallon of paint, and it tips in your car and the lid comes off, don't you think the store has some responsibility to making sure the product they give you is properly sealed?
 

mkathyf

Member
Oh, and yes, I too thought the total bill was extremely high. However, they had to replace all the carpet. They had to take out all the seats and replace the seat in the back.
They had to remove the upholstery and clean it...then put it back on.
They had to replace two covers, in the trunk.

Plus, they had to clean the entire car, once all the seats and carpet were removed, because of all the wine and how invasive it was.

So....$2700! :(
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
They should hold some responsibility for making sure their product is secure.
If you buy a gallon of paint, and it tips in your car and the lid comes off, don't you think the store has some responsibility to making sure the product they give you is properly sealed?
Actually, as the driver of the vehicle, you have the ultimate responsibility for ensuring the load is secure. Period.
You *may* be able to shift SOME of that to the people who put the items in your trunk, but if they simply lifted them because you are too weak, that doesn't mean they took responsibility for securing them.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
unless you can prove those buckets with a properly installed lid would not come open if they are tipped over such as they did, you have no claim.

YOU failed to secure your cargo. You are liable for what happened due to that.
 

stealth2

Under the Radar Member
They did load it into my vehicle. (I couldn't pick these buckets up if I wanted to).
My claim is that the lids were never secured properly. They are the same type of buckets in which you would purchase 5 gallons of paint. Taking these lids off is difficult.
I have filled the buckets with water. I have secured the lids properly and I have violently shaken them, kicked them over, thrown them down...and the lids remain securely on the bucket.
I'm curious... If the buckets, full with grape juice, were too heavy for you to pick up, how did you shake them (violently, even) when they were full of water?
 
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mkathyf

Member
Well. The buckets were now empty...since the entire contents spilled into my car.
I washed the empty buckets and filled them with water. And then pushed them over, kicked them over, etc. Not one spill...because i secured the lids.
It is one thing to be able to lift the bucket, by the handle, when it is below me on the ground...it's another thing to try to lift them up and out of a trunk.
As far as securing them in my vehicle....OK, maybe I should have. But, I didn't know until I got there, what kind of a container they would be in. I was thinking they would be in jugs, of some sort.
But, IF the lids were locked, as they are designed to do, then those buckets could have tipped and rolled all the way home, and nothing would have spilled out of them.
They were NOT locked, as the buckets are designed to do.
I did not load them. After I paid, I was told to drive to the loading area and their employee would load them into my car. He never mentioned that they could tip and open...no word of caution at all.
I am 100% sure that, had those bucket lids been closed as they are designed to close, they would NOT have opened.
 

>Charlotte<

Lurker
As far as securing them in my vehicle....OK, maybe I should have.
No, not "maybe". You absolutely should have secured them in your vehicle. As the driver it was your responsibility to make sure your cargo was secure. Even if the buckets were too heavy to lift, you could have gotten out of the car, walked around to the back, and tested the lids.

Even if the lids had stayed secure, buckets that heavy could have caused damage to the interior of your vehicle once they were jarred and started rolling around. Surely in that case you would understand that you had not properly secured the cargo, and that would have been your responsibility, wouldn't you? It's really the same thing.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
you can always file a small claims suit and see where it gets you. I think it will only result in lightening your wallet the amount of filing fees but is it generally not that much. When determining fault, you have to determine proximate cause and in this case, while the lids may or may not have stayed on if they tipped over (I have seen them pop off of paint buckets before), if you had secured them, it would be a moot point. That means it was ultimately your fault for not securing the buckets.

but, small claims is cheap and you often cannot really determine how it will end up. They have their own idea of justice sometimes.
 

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