Message-ID: <3C6637E9.4010109@nidlink.com>
Date: Sun, 10 Feb 2002 01:05:45 -0800
From: Hamid Wasti <hwasti@nidlink.com>
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To: lancair.list@olsusa.com
Subject: RE: post-sale liability
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Brian Barbata Wrote:

  >My attorney researched this with EAA, and they pointed out that there
  >has never been a successful suit brought with respect to post-sale
  >liability (the subject of my original note).

"There has never been a successful suit" is most probably a true
statement, but we need to take it one step further:  Has no suit ever
been brought or has none prevailed after being pursued vigorously?  The
two answers have extremely different implications.

If no suit has been brought, it may be that no incident has occurred
where the potential defendant has deep enough pockets to make it worth
while.  You can sue someone who has no money and win, then what?
  Lawyers who work on contingency are very aware of this fact and will
not bother bringing even a winnable suit unless they have a reasonable
assurance of collecting the judgment.  If this is the case, you may be
the first one to get sued as well the first one to loose such a case.
  The lack of precedent offers no comfort.

On the other hand, if there have been previous suits which have been
pursued vigorously and have failed, then you have legal precedent to
take comfort in.  The "pursued vigorously" qualifier is important.  A
lawyer may send a threatening letter or even file a suit with the hope
of getting an out of court settlement.  When the defendant refuses to
just roll over and puts up a fight it becomes not worth while to
continue.  Such cases do not set legal precedent.

Keep in mind that until 10 to 15 years ago, homebuilding was a poor
man's hobby.  It is only in the last decade or so that people with deep
pockets have entered this field as builders.  It takes time for a
builder to built the plane, then sell it, then the buyer to crash it,
then a suit to be filed and then for the suit to go through the system.
  The whole issue may be so new that the probability would be low that a
ground breaking case would have happened already.

Once again, let me point out that I am not a lawyer and don't play one
on TV or the internet.  I have just enough knowledge of the law to ask
the difficult questions.  In other words, I come across as the nay-sayer
who never offers a solution, only objections :)

Hamid


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