Ditching liability

[coastlogger]

Recently I was hired to dig a trench from house to outbuilding using mid sized excavator with 12 inch no tooth ditching bucket . Started at house where owner and electrician showed me where to start ,a few feet from house to avoid contacting another buried cable coming in from about 11 o clock .I did this,being careful with first few scoops in case of another cable.All seemed fine.Others stood around but did not seem to be actively monitoring the ditching.when I returned 3 days later to backfill they showed me other Teck cable had been pulled and bruised and apparently caused damage in service box .looked like it had been contacted by a bucket alright,meanwhile they had hand? excavated the rest of ditch so no way of really assessing what had occurred .Owner said not to worry about it..A week later owners accountant/manager called saying they were filing insurance claim and that insurance co would likely come after me for damages estimated at 6k .I do have insurance but it's 2.5 k deductible.
Advice?

 

[Steve Frazier]

Don't know your laws up there but here in NY the machine owner is liable for this sort of problem. We're required to have every excavation job marked out by a certified utility markout company. If the excavation contractor follows their guidelines the markout company assumes the liability for accidents.

If you were the only excavator on this job it sounds like you're liable to me.

 

[Delmer]

I disagree. If you're digging on public right of way, you need diggers hotline to mark utilities, and follow their markings. They don't mark private utilities though, that's the owners responsibility, and you follow the owners guidelines and the risk is theirs. Their directions, their problem.

 

[James Sorochan]

coastloger. was there any conversation on locates when they hired you? Were you working by the hour or contract price. To me the owner is responsible for locating utilities on private property.

 

[coastlogger]

Basically they told me where to start which was supposed to be well clear of the cable.i guess it wasn't quite where they thought and it got nicked. I suppose the tip of my bucket may have just caught it but I sure never felt or saw anything. No tape showed up either. I'm guessing there was tape but seeing as I was digging kind of right angles to cable my bucket may have kind of snuck in past it so to speak.no one said anything till 4 days later either so no opportunity to analyze exactly what occurred. If it wasn't for the(supposed)damage in the box I'd say they nicked it with hand shovel or,even,that the damage occurred when they backfilled the cable a year ago .

 

[coastlogger]

It was an hourly job,originally to be " cash" ( their idea) but no cash appeared so sent them hourly invoice. Haven't seen pay yet but it's early days.

 

[Acoals]

Fight them. Just don't pay, make them take it to court. They probably won't. There is an awful lot of bluster in these things. Nobody wants to pay, and the utilities are going to try to recover money from somewhere. I have been involved with several of these deals involving improper markings and such. They fuss and bluster and insist you have to pay. You explain to them exactly how they are wrong, they ignore you and send a bill. you don't pay the bill, they send a couple more, then a lawyer from Oklahoma send you a very intimidating letter threatening all sorts of dire legal consequences. You ignore that too and then that is the last you hear of it.

Not saying that is what happens everywhere with every situation, but don't get too excited just yet.

Also these things tend to take a long time.

 

[coastlogger]

Great wisdom there and thanks for the encouragement.!

 

[Delmer]

it won't be that easy, because you'll have to take them to court if they don't pay. The best you can do is document as well as you can, and follow up on a short timeline with second notice and then small claims filing. If it goes to court, you won't be happy, but they won't be either. If they're smart, and not deadbeats already, then they'll probably realize that they're better off paying (or negotiating unfortunately) than having a judgement against them in court. Here in WI, you can look up any person or business and see their past cases in civil and criminal court, to see how much they like to play in the court system, and estimate how sleazy they are from that info.

 

[skyking1]

it won't be that easy, because you'll have to take them to court if they don't pay. The best you can do is document as well as you can, and follow up on a short timeline with second notice and then small claims filing. If it goes to court, you won't be happy, but they won't be either. If they're smart, and not deadbeats already, then they'll probably realize that they're better off paying (or negotiating unfortunately) than having a judgement against them in court. Here in WI, you can look up any person or business and see their past cases in civil and criminal court, to see how much they like to play in the court system, and estimate how sleazy they are from that info.

It's great info to have. There was a pilot at the airport with a small business and he sued everybody. it was his way of life I guess. Needless to say we had nothing to do with him, he was a pariah.