Thread: liability of walking from a job??????

Under NY law, liability attaches to a contractor very early in the negotiating process of contracting a job. I learned that long ago from a lawyer who was well worth the $$$$$$$ I paid him, and also learned I was better off not even looking at some jobs. In NY, the instant you tell a potential customer what a problem is, and what can be done to eliminate the problem, you incurr liability, even if you don't get or take the job. It's insane, but it keeps ambulance chasers drinking good Skotch.

There also seems to be a very interesting situation developing relative to cranes and tree work. 2 weeks ago, after spending a couple hours on the phone calling every crane outfit in the Rochester area, they all had the same answwer, NO CRANES AVAILABLE for tree work. Nobody was even willing to discuss crane rental when they heard the word TREE.

Originally posted by Franz
In NY, the instant you tell a potential customer what a problem is, and what can be done to eliminate the problem, you incurr liability, even if you don't get or take the job.

It's the same everywhere, to varying degrees.
This is another good reason to get out of the "Free Estimate" gig when you can. You are out on a limb whenever you as a professional profess what you know--or even guess at what you might know a little about. You are exposed to all kinds of misinterpretations, ramifications, so each time before you say anything you should take the time to carefully look at the whole thing.
Who has the time for all that unless paid?
And of course a Limiting Conditions, CYA form shoud be part of any estimate or opinion professionally rendered. Even if a guy knows squat, if he advertises he is posing as a pro and therefore liable.
One joker I know of is getting sued because he posed as a tree man, topped 7 maples which died. His ins. co. is looking at about $100,000 due the tree owner.

Originally posted by Franz


There also seems to be a very interesting situation developing relative to cranes and tree work. 2 weeks ago, after spending a couple hours on the phone calling every crane outfit in the Rochester area, they all had the same answwer, NO CRANES AVAILABLE for tree work. Nobody was even willing to discuss crane rental when they heard the word TREE.

Franz in 1993 when I worked for Birchcrest Tree in Webster, we used a crane guy regularly. I am pretty sure the crane company was on the westside of the city. Anyways you may want to call over to Birchcrest and see if they will tell you the name

here's how it played out..........since the lead fell on the nieghbors house we're getting paid directly from the ins co. since the nieghbor and the tree owner have the same ins co they told the tree owner he better do something about the rest of the tree or they will not cover any damage if it falls since it's a known hazzard. so my boss gave him a price to do the tree climbing it.

this shows the access problems for a crane

light through the tree

this isn't pretty rigging ...........but one must make do.....

the head rope was set in a maple on the other side of the roof to a rope brake. this was the set up for the butt end after we wacked on it a bit.

its hard to tell from the piece of wood blocking the view, but the stick is actually suspended mid air.

normally we would rig from a high crotch and pull the tree off the roof and cut the bottom out, but since the tree was in such bad shape and it was the boss's call we did it this way.

the back side and above from where the lead ripped out

The rope that is attached to the front of the limb, where it is going up to the roof, I can't see, the leaves block it out.

Was it rubbing against the gutter fixture? Did that damage it? Or was it allready damaged, and didn't matter?

I bet yur glad that can of worms is over!




Or, is it?

the rope went across the roof into a maple. the roof had already taken a beating, lots of broken tiles and splintered wood. we fudged the gutter. it was either this way or pick a crotch high in the tree and chance pulling the rest of it down. it probbably would have held but the boss did not want to chance it.

Crap, wish I could do jobs like that for $9000. That looks like a half day job, only I wouldn't have thrashed the gutter.

If you would have left it connected at the base, stuck a couple 6X6 beams under the spar to support it, then started cutting it off the roof, it would be unable to drop down and wreck stuff.

You also had the other half of the tree to pull off of. It doesn't look like you took much advantage of that.

That's all from the armchair tree guy.

mike,

i was against the method used, but since i'm just an employee it was not my call. because the part of the tree that was standing is in such bad shape my boss was afraid of pulling down the rest of the tree. also to avoid any possible liability issues he didn't want us to climb the tree to set a pulley. typiclly we would set a pulley up high in the tree, set the rope high a few feet back from the gutter and pull it up off the roof, then cut piece's off the bottom.
when my boss got the go ahead from the ins co told them we would damage the gutter and possibly the eve. the roof was already trashed. so since the ins co is already paying to reroof a terra cotta roof a gutter was a drop in the bucket.

i've used the prop up method before, but ithe spar was only hanging by a thread. i would not have worked on the limb till it was on the ground. i cut it free with a power pruner . the prop methed i;ve used more in up rooted tree's where i don't have to worry about any drop and i know it's still semi attached to the ground.

if i propped this tree then i would have had to go up on the spar to take it down. the piece's would have had to been roped since it was over a slate walkway and close to the windows. the shock of roping it off itself could have snapped it free. when we were cutting the bush off the roof as the weight changed it twisted and almost broke free then.

but i'm still interested to hear other ideas. has any one ever set up scaffoling uder a tree?