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When is a Bad Haircut Actionable?
Q:
I loaned two ponies to a trainer to use in a pony
camp and for possible purchase.
After the camp was over, the trainer bought one
pony and called me to come and pick up the other pony.
When I arrived to pick up my pony, I found that
its formerly one-foot-long mane had been roached and its
long, flowing, thick tail cut to the hocks.
I am totally frustrated because the trainer can
say is “I’m sorry, I didn’t know you wanted me to
cut the mane and tail.
I thought I was improving it for you under my
barn standards.”
I lost a committed sale of over $2500 due to the
drastic change in the pony’s appearance.
When I asked the trainer to pay for the pony, she
told me that she couldn’t pay for it, but would keep
the pony at her barn until the mane and tail grow
out…which we all know will be over a year or more.
What are my options, as no formal written
contract was signed, and the verbal agreement was
nothing more than “here is a few loaner ponies for
your school – let me know which ones you want to buy
at the rate of $2000-2500 in two weeks”?
Does care and custody apply in this case?
Small claims?
A:
First, we have to determine whether
you have suffered a loss.
Whether a pony should have a roached mane and
banged tail is a matter of personal taste, but it was
not the trainer’s judgment call to make unless you
gave her permission to alter your pony’s appearance.
The key question is whether the pony’s value
has diminished (even temporarily) as a result of the
trainer’s actions.
You state that you have lost a committed sale as
a direct result of the pony’s appearance, which
suggests that the pony’s value has indeed diminished. An equine appraiser could also provide an independent opinion
about whether the pony’s value has declined, and if
so, by how much.
Let’s assume that the pony’s value
has in fact diminished – is the trainer liable?
The trainer voluntarily took your pony into her
custody, and you reasonably expected that the trainer
would return the pony in the same condition in which the
pony arrived. The
trainer returned the pony to you in a condition of
diminished value, and the trainer’s actions were
directly responsible for the decrease in value, so the
trainer would likely be held responsible for your loss.
How would you recover your loss from
the trainer? You
have already taken the first step, which is to try and
work out a settlement between the two of you.
Now that you have a clearer idea of who should be
responsible, it is probably worth your while to approach
the trainer with a copy of this column and again try to
work out the situation.
If you fail to reach an agreement, you may want
to pursue a claim in small
claims court because the amount in controversy is
less than $5,000 (the limit for California small
claims).
What could you do to prevent these
types of problems in the future?
At ELS, we hear about a lot of similar cases
where horses are returned in lesser condition than they
arrived. Sometimes,
it is a lease situation, other times, it is a sale
trial, but in almost every case, there is no written
agreement among the parties and the parties usually have
very different ideas about who should be responsible for
what. A
written agreement can help you avoid misunderstandings
by clarifying the parties’ roles and responsibilities,
and it is always better to find out before
you drop off your horse that the potential buyer/lessor
does not want to be responsible for accidents, lameness,
colic, etc.
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