A few Saturdays ago, I took the day off to study
unemployment compensation law. I had
been looking forward to it all week. I
was on the verge of figuring out the 100 day rule, when someone started banging
on the front door. Wishing I had a
bazooka handy, I stormed toward the source of the racket. On the front porch
stood a thin man who appeared to be in his twenties. Either he had just finished doing some yard
work or he was trying out for the part of PigPen in this year’s Charlie Brown
Christmas play. He stated that he was a
tree trimmer and would be happy to cut down some of the dead trees on my lot
for a reasonable price. I explained to
him that I needed the dead trees for my annual Halloween party. I told him to watch his step as he was
leaving.
I don’t like door to door salesmen. I have even put a “No Solicitors” sign up in
front of the house. Although the sign has
scared off a few English lawyers, it hasn’t kept away the magazine hawkers, yard men, painters and
other aggravations that I had hoped would buzz off. Perhaps I need to get a new sign that says,
“Salesmen Will Be Shot.” For those of
you who think I’m being too harsh, let me tell you about a few cases I’ve
stumbled across involving door to door painters, tree trimmers, and gutter
cleaners.
Any case that begins by identifying the plaintiffs as somebody’s
“widow and children” is not going to be a happy tale and the Shaw case is no
exception. Mr. Shaw was a self-employed
house painter. He had come to Ms.
Watson’s house to give her a quote on doing some painting for her. While there, he offered to clean the
gutters.
Had Ms. Watson been a wiser homeowner, she would have
asked for proof that Mr. Shaw had workers’ compensation insurance. However, she simply agreed to pay him to
clean the gutters and went back to her housework. Soon, a “tremendous noise” came from the area
where Mr. Shaw had begun working. His
ladder had fallen, throwing him onto a concrete porch. He died from his injuries about three months
later.
The widow and children sued Ms. Watson. They alleged that her failure to properly
maintain her house caused the accident. They
said she had allowed her gutters to fall into disrepair as they were not
securely fastened to the fascia board.
Also they claimed that she had failed to replace the aged and brittle
shingles on her roof. Finally they said that
the roof was too steep and the concrete porch was slippery.
Meanwhile, Ms. Watson’s homeowner’s insurance denied coverage
because Mr. Shaw was working for Ms. Watson when the accident occurred. The homeowner’s policy did not cover persons
injured while providing “professional services.”
In a similar case from California, an injured tree trimmer
stated that the homeowner had violated the state Labor Code by hiring an
unlicensed contractor. As several people
were working on the homeowner’s project, the tree trimmer claimed that the
homeowner should have purchased his own worker’s compensation coverage. Finally he argued that the homeowner had
violated OSHA safety working standards.
The case tied up the California courts for many years.
Even if you’re lucky enough to find a court that makes
your homeowners’ insurance pay the injured handyman, you might not have enough insurance
coverage. Assume our gutter man, Mr.
Shaw, was the sole support of a wife and three children and was in his twenties
when he fell off the rickety roof. Had
he not fallen, he would have been able to work another 40 years to provide for
his family. If he was making $25,000 per
year, his lost wages alone would total one million dollars. Add pain and suffering, medical bills, his
wife’s loss of her able-bodied companion, and you have a multi-million dollar claim.
Now, assume your gutter cleaner falls because your not-so-friendly
Rottweiler knocked over the ladder while trying to kill the man. You know which dog I mean. He’s the reason you have a large “Beware of
Dog” sign in the front yard. (Plaintiff’s
Exhibit A). At this point, because you
did not keep your dangerous dog under control, you face a claim for punitive
damages. Add another $250,000 to the
claim of the widow and children.
The last door to door guys I hired were house painters. The morning they showed up to work, I noticed
a strong odor of Kentucky bourbon coming off the painter who staggered past me
as he was heading for a ladder. I asked
the foreman if the man had been drinking.
“Of course he’s been drinking,” he answered. “He’s terrified of heights. Getting him drunk is the only way we can get
him up there.” Having already paid the
painters, with no refund in sight, I could only go back inside to begin my
prayer vigil.
So, now you know why I have the “No Solicitors” sign up in
the front yard. And why the house needs painting. And why the gutters are clogged up. And why I have dead trees in the yard.
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