Horn Damaged and dealing with it The Rest of the Story

[Uncle Buck]

It is not at all clear to me that the university is financially responsible for the negligence of a student. It would be a different story if the student were an employee or agent of the university.

If a customer rear-ends your car in a McDonald's parking lot, can you sue McDonalds?

...which is why it might be a good idea to sue the professor, the student, and the school. A good judge should be able to sort it out.

- The student was careless, but
- The professor was in charge of class management, yet
- The university agreed to hire the plaintiff to come on campus and perform with the ensemble.

I can't tell to what extent your comment is tongue-in-cheek. But to the OP's request for advice, and with the skeletal facts presented, the honest truth is that one potential result of rejecting the professor's offer (or rejecting the offer and filing a lawsuit) could be that the OP would end up with nothing. It's possible the only recourse would be against the student.

Possible that the OP would win, too. But neither outcome is as certain as the offer on the table.

[pgym]

It is not at all clear to me that the university is financially responsible for the negligence of a student. It would be a different story if the student were an employee or agent of the university.

If a customer rear-ends your car in a McDonald's parking lot, can you sue McDonalds?

...which is why it might be a good idea to sue the professor, the student, and the school. A good judge should be able to sort it out.

- The student was careless, but
- The professor was in charge of class management, yet
- The university agreed to hire the plaintiff to come on campus and perform with the ensemble.

I can't tell to what extent your comment is tongue-in-cheek. But to the OP's request for advice, and with the skeletal facts presented, the honest truth is that one potential result of rejecting the professor's offer (or rejecting the offer and filing a lawsuit) could be that the OP would end up with nothing. It's possible the only recourse would be against the student.

Possible that the OP would win, too. But neither outcome is as certain as the offer on the table.

The other consideration is that the guaranteed result of rejecting the prof's offer and filing suit against any of the parties (prof, student, univ) is that the OP will be blacklisted from subbing by the music dept (assuming he hasn't been already), and may very well find himself blackballed by other groups as word gets around, which it inevitably will.

[Uncle Buck]

I fail to understand why there would be future interest in working for the organization who treated me that way.

The OP has already stated that he DOES have that future interest, so all of my advice has been premised on that assumption.

- when stuff that I need and use is torn up, I take it to the best person, and ignore (in particular) the advice of those who were responsible for it being torn up.
- when I'm due recompense that is not forthcoming, I've learned that a well-organized case, a filing fee, and a clearly-presented testimony serve me well.

Good advice with one caveat - from the sparse information in this thread it is not at all clear (to me at least) from whom the OP is "due recompense."

[Uncle Buck]

...yet you view my suggestion of filing against the school, the professor, and the student as possibly a "tongue-in-cheek" suggestion...(??)

I guess I was wrong on that one (sorry ), but I still question the value of suing everybody, based on:
- The OP's (photo-less) description of the damage (the horn still stands on its bell, but wobbles); and
- My gut-check estimation of the dollar value of the difference between a bell and garland repair done by Oberloh and one done by the local technician (who the OP described as unknown to him but respectable). Obviously an Oberloh repair is worth more. But the OP (not me ) has to decide whether the difference is worth the collateral results (including the potential of losing the lawsuit and getting nothing from the university).

[swillafew]

The best part of this story is learning to expect stuff like this to happen and to govern ones' self accordingly at the event.

[bill]

Bump for conclusion (read the edited Original Post).

[tubajoe]

Oh man… quite an unfortunate saga. Hope all is resolved by now.

After my horn got damaged once at a club I used to play at often (the owner let people on the stage between sets) I refused to work there again. I told the owner it's not a joke, he's gotta look after people who are working for him and keep the work environment safe… for people as well as their precious tools of the trade.


Sadly even with the most precautions, Dents do happen. There's simply no way around it. If you have your horn out in the world making music on it for the people, it's gonna get dented.


True story:
Once upon a time in a cramped chamber orch gig, a trombone player's stand fell and scratched a cello. Twice. The cello player started to weep. The adjacent french horn player turns and says comfortingly: "Come on now, don't cry. That's nothing a good belt sander can't fix."

[Jose the tuba player]

.

[tofu]

Geez... do I understand correctly that the same outfit that damaged your 184 one month later drops a huge screen on you? Unbelievable. Glad to hear you suffered no serious long term injury. It's too bad you lost the gig, but I'd be afraid that given a 3rd crack at you they'd finish you off.

[bort]

Glad to hear you weren't seriously injured, that's some really bad luck! It sounds like things wrapped up about as well as they possibly could have (provided that the checks actually arrive).

A few follow-up questions:
1) Are you still playing with the group?
2) Do you live next to Dan Fouts?
3) I didn't really follow your comment about the "young Turks." What did that mean?

And not a question, but a comment that service dogs are so freaking cool. My wife's cousin has a service dog, and it's really an amazing animal, helper, and companion. And even cooler are old, retired service dogs.

Anyway, glad you're okay, hope your 2014 is event-free!

[bill]

#1) You must be kidding!
#2) The Family lives down the street from me
#3 Young Turks are bright young fellows who can solve everything and make a name for themselves, at anyone's expense. .

Yeah, and Rosie, our dog, is a Pound Puppy I trained because she is super intelligent and caring. Would that she were a music professor running the orchestra.

[J.c. Sherman]

Reading through this, I'll just add $.02:

1) You have every right to request a new replacement bell. I'd eschew repair due to the garland damage. New bell, horn nice, issue complete. That'd have been my gut reaction at first.

2) I rarely bring my primary instruments to Colleges and Schools unless it's necessary. If I do, or regardless, and having seen this coming generation's general disrespect for items of value, I stay the hell away from everyone not an adult proven sane. You now that now

3) If my instrument is still damaged, I'd go right after the miscreant douche-nozzle who did it... the College and/or Prof can intercede if they chose... but that kid's going to be billed. By my insurance company. As a matter of fact, I had a case where a kid's mom ran over my instrument in a parking lot and almost ran me over too. Their insurance replaced it. I did not go after the school.

4) Finally... in this day and age, I'd be entering the gig with full knowledge that it's unlikely anyone will take responsibility but me. Practically no one does anymore (with really rare exceptions!). So I know I'll end up getting it fixed (read, "I'll fix it") and know to stay in the green room in the fetal position with my ax in the future. All others here, take note and do the same.

J.c.S.

P.S. Concussions suck.