Dry cleaner lost my suit's pants

[bbhues]

My dry cleaner lost the pants to my suit - they gave them to another customer of theirs (the exact customer remains unknown 2 months after the fact). Has this happened to anyone?

My receipt had a liabilty cap of 10 times the cost of their handling the pants. Does anyone know if I can argue that they owe me the full value of the suit?

 

[Superfluous]

I'd be pissed.

 

[teddieriley]

I think in most jurisdictions the disclaimer on the receipt would be found valid. You can always ask for more, and if you don't plan to use them again, threaten them with a $67 million dollar lawsuit, enbroiling the owners in costly (to both you of) and horrible lawsuit.

If you're a good customer, just maybe - maybe - they may agree to pay more. But don't be fooled, they probably lose pants all the time, and if they agreed to paying those out at full value, they'd be out of business. Besides, how old is the suit? You're not going to get the value of a brand new one, that's for sure.

 

[bbhues]

Thanks for the information. FYI - I'd only worn the suit about 4 times. It seems idiotic, but I'd like to keep using them for now, at least until I can find a better cleaner that is close enough to my neighborhood.

 

[stevent]



Thanks for the information.  FYI - I'd only worn the suit about 4 times.  It seems idiotic, but I'd like to keep using them for now, at least until I can find a better cleaner that is close enough to my neighborhood.

You shouldn't be dry cleaning so often unless you spilled something on the suit.

Good luck with getting your money back though

 

[ter1413]



You shouldn't be dry cleaning so often unless you spilled something on the suit.
Good luck with getting your money back though

agree. i have gone over a yr w/o dry cleaning some of my suits. unless there was a staiin, then there is no need....
but that's besides the pt........
good luck and i don't think they owe you the value of an entire suit..

 

[celery]



I think in most jurisdictions the disclaimer on the receipt would be found valid. You can always ask for more, and if you don't plan to use them again, threaten them with a $67 million dollar lawsuit, enbroiling the owners in costly (to both you of) and horrible lawsuit.

If you're a good customer, just maybe - maybe - they may agree to pay more. But don't be fooled, they probably lose pants all the time, and if they agreed to paying those out at full value, they'd be out of business. Besides, how old is the suit? You're not going to get the value of a brand new one, that's for sure.

Ah, the good ol' threatening to sue their pants off routine.

 

[Mal]

Teddie I don't know why you think that a waiver of liability would extend in the circumstances to losing a suit/pants. I would think that it would be narrowly construed against the dry cleaners to merely waive liability if something happened in dry cleaning. For example, if they were destroyed, ripped, burned, or such things. I seriously doubt it extends beyond this, would you think that the waiver would extend to a situation where an employee stole the pants? How do we know the difference? Although losing the pants may arguably be a risk of dry cleaning, I would say that point is very arguable.

It is far harder to waive liability on intentional acts of negligence than accidents, a catch-all waiver on the bottom of your dry cleaning slip is very possibly insufficient.

 

[Michigan Planner]



I think in most jurisdictions the disclaimer on the receipt would be found valid. You can always ask for more, and if you don't plan to use them again, threaten them with a $67 million dollar lawsuit, enbroiling the owners in costly (to both you of) and horrible lawsuit...

Maybe if he's lucky he'll get Judge Pearson to be handling the case.

 

[teddieriley]



Teddie I don't know why you think that a waiver of liability would extend in the circumstances to losing a suit/pants. I would think that it would be narrowly construed against the dry cleaners to merely waive liability if something happened in dry cleaning. For example, if they were destroyed, ripped, burned, or such things. I seriously doubt it extends beyond this, would you think that the waiver would extend to a situation where an employee stole the pants? How do we know the difference? Although losing the pants may arguably be a risk of dry cleaning, I would say that point is very arguable.
It is far harder to waive liability on intentional acts of negligence than accidents, a catch-all waiver on the bottom of your dry cleaning slip is very possibly insufficient.

Well, I'm not giving fully analyzed legal advice. In any event, we don't have the disclaimer language or even know what state the OP is in. I'm just saying that disclaimers or caps on liability, even on a receipt, from what I understand, are generally enforceable, and if this guy really wants to get more than what is stated on the disclaimer, he will have to challenge the language in court. Who the hell wants to do that? They're just pants to what I am assuming aren't expensive RTW or bespoke. But yes, losing pants suck, unless it's right before you're going to ********.

 

[KObalto]



I think in most jurisdictions the disclaimer on the receipt would be found valid. You can always ask for more, and if you don't plan to use them again, threaten them with a $67 million dollar lawsuit, enbroiling the owners in costly (to both you of) and horrible lawsuit.
If you're a good customer, just maybe - maybe - they may agree to pay more. But don't be fooled, they probably lose pants all the time, and if they agreed to paying those out at full value, they'd be out of business. Besides, how old is the suit? You're not going to get the value of a brand new one, that's for sure.

Oh no, not again!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearson_v._Chung

 

[F. Corbera]

I don't want to blow your mind, but chances are greater than zero that SF Senior Member and Pollster Reevolving ended up with your pants.

A friendly PM to him using one syllable words is certainly worth a shot.

OP is wise to consult the legal minds of the SF membership, given that the Forvm has some of the finest free legal advice minds on the Internet.

Terrific thread!

 

[ned kelly]

The dry cleaner should have insurance for this. My suit was lost by my dry cleaner .I put in a claim to my cleaner who referred it to his insurance broker.The dry cleaner's association has a scale to value all damaged or lost goods. The suit was from one of Hong Kong's more expensive tailors. I provided a copy of the credit card bill and a letter from the tailor describing the details of the suit. As it had been worn only a few times i was compensated to near cost of the suit. This is in Australia YMMV. My advice is to keep it friendly and see if you can come to a fair solution.

 

[F. Corbera]



This is in Australia YMMV.

I really love your tradition of the Walkabout and the magnificent fjords of your great nation of Middle Earth.

 

[phoenixrecon]

im always worried something like this might happen to me