Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire.

   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #1  

namesray

Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
726
Location
nc PA.
Tractor
kubota rtv900: kubota mx5200
Ok as the title says. The topic of how to properly do side jobs for money with our equipment comes up a bit here on tbn, and it always leads down the road of telling the op they need to atleast get insurance or start a llc or such or they risk losing everything they own. Who here has "ACTUAL" Experience/ story of a lawsuit or a big insurance claim (almost lawsuit) happening from an incident with an unhappy customer.
Please provide rather you had insurance or not, were a llc/corp, or had customer sign agreement prior to starting work, etc.. and how it turned out.
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #2  
None here. A lady once falsely accused me of tearing up her fence while mowing. I spent about $10 and fixed her fence and all was good.
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #3  
It will be interesting to see the replies to this and how many actually come up with bonified examples.

Most of the threads like you described are full of 'one time this happened to a guy, I heard...'

:D
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #4  
It will be interesting to see the replies to this and how many actually come up with bonified examples.

Most of the threads like you described are full of 'one time this happened to a guy, I heard...'

:D

"The guy next door's second cousin's best friend's dad"
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #5  
I seen my neighbor post hole digging for his neighbor and he hit a gas line. Don't know if he was being paid but I'm sure he was cause he is tight.
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #6  
A friend hit a car while driving to a job, insurance covered damage
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #7  
I was working for a senator from NC digging holes for close to 1000 boxwood trees with my post hole digger. He was walking around with a martini in one hand and a cup of flour in the other to mark the spots for holes. He had a phone on his shoulder as he walked about. I saw him take the phone down from his shoulder and peck at it, this was before cell phones, and one of the guys back at the digger told me to stop. I had about 30 ft of phone line wrapped around the auger. The senator said, "This is going to cost you a lot of money." I said "You marked the spot" End of story. Ed
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #8  
I hope to never need it, but I have insurance coverage. A very small oops with the FEL or RFM brushing someone's car could easily cost thousands of dollars. I switched insurance companies when the insurer I was with for over 20 years couldn't help me. I ended up with better coverage for the house / car / etc plus coverage for the tractor itself (at home and offsite, plus on the road) and a million dollar liability coverage. All this was less than I was paying without the tractor insurance. The reasonable rate is because I enjoy helping others and using the tractor and don't charge for any work. The agent said if the policy would be a lot different if I were doing the work for pay. Probably 90 percent of what I do offsite is mowing for a widow neighbor and clearing snow for neighbors and at church.
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #9  
I brushed a minivan with my loader bucket. Luckily, it was my minivan.
 
   / Actual stories of lawsuits for doing tractor work for hire. #10  
Anecdotal evidence of someone being sued is pretty worthless. What is good evidence is go down to your local court house and see how many people are getting sued for stupid stuff.

The point of insurance is two fold. First to cover you if you make a mistake and hit that gas line or hit someones house with the loader or whatever.

Second is to cover you for the FALSE claims that will come up. Someone says you are the one that hit the gas line. However the line was not marked. Or they are inflating the damages to the car you hit etc. Insurance will hire you a lawyer and defend you.

While I have not been involved in litigation regarding tractor work, I have been involved in litigation. It is not fun. It is especially not fun when you know you have done nothing wrong, but you are still paying out thousands of dollars for a lawyer to defend you.
 
 
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