What is the optimal way for me to proceed with this dispute with a
construction contractor? What are, generally, the most likely outcomes
and costs? Also please advise me of the contractor's liabilities here.
This is in California.

Background: The contractor was hired to reroute some cables and a
power outlet, and this required dismounting and remounting the
customer's new plasma TV screen. The contractor's employee asked me to
help him lift the screen onto its mounting bracket - as his supervisor
who was helping him earlier had left to another site. I helped him
lift the screen onto the wall mount but was otherwise uninvolved with
his project.

I am the customer's boyfriend. I helped the supervisor lift the screen
onto the bracket 3 days earlier at his request after he installed the
wall mount, so I was familiar with the procedure.

The wall mount is an inverted "V" type slide arrangement where the
flanges interlock with its mate on the back of the plasma screen. When
the flanges on both sides are interlocked, it constitutes a stable,
load-bearing mount arrangement. If one of the flanges is not
interlocked, it is not stable, and the two small lockdown screws are
not able to be inserted into the strip along the top.
 
The employee didn't realize he failed to interlock the flanges on his
side, and so the screen was resting tenuously on just the top of the
bracket. Several minutes later, the plasma fell off its bracket and
hit my head while I was cabling the receiver box sitting on the floor.
The employee was standing near the screen when this happened and
helped catch it as it hit the floor. I do not know what the employee
was doing as I was not watching him. Possibly he shifted the screen to
try to align the lockdown screws with the holes. The employee falsely
claims that I jiggled some cables on the bottom of the plasma screen,
causing it to fall. The $7000 TV was totalled.

I took many photos of dents, scrapes and the like and did an analysis.
I believe I can (and I have) demonstrate convincingly to a technical
person that the employee failed to interlock the bracket flange on his
side when we lifted the screen onto the bracket (analogous to not
placing a drawer on one of its rails when putting it back into a
dresser.)

The contractor, who wasn't there, insists that I have some fault but
provides no specifics other than his guy's story and his own
'intuition'. His employee made up a story about what happened,
presumably to cover himself. I have no fault - and none can be shown -
and neither did the customer, who wasn't even there. The employee's
story doesn't agree with the evidence. Bottom line is that the
employee set up an unsafe condition that allowed the accident to
happen.

The contractor initially told the customer and myself that she would
not have to pay 'one red cent' and he assumed all liability. He then
asked us to try to get the customer's household insurance to pay for
it, however I didn't think it covered that. He is no longer willing to
honor his original agreement.

The contractor has been sued in the past by others and is paranoid
that the customer and I are 'out to screw him', despite an excellent
past working relationship with the customer. He doesn't listen well,
has slandered me, and doesn't seem rational about this matter. The
contractor as he said is not properly insured for this kind of work
and it is not the kind of work he usually does.


The dropped TV has been in the repair dept of the store she bought it
from for over 3 months to get an estimate. The customer found a
replacement TV for $5200 a few weeks later from the internet. The
customer offered to settle the matter for $5200 with the contractor
and he would get the damaged TV that's in the shop, its estimate to
repair unknown at the time. He declined that offer and sent a copy of
everything to his lawyers. That offer is now off the table until I get
more advice. We sent a conciliatory but firm letter, but received no
response.

This week, the shop certified that the TV was a total loss - its cost
to repair being higher than getting a new one. However, as a gesture
of goodwill for the delay, the vendor will charge the customer only
$909 to repair. Viewed another way, the cost to repair was the
replacement cost of the TV from that vendor, or $6995, and, the TV
vendor settled their delays with the customer by absorbing most of the
cost to repair, which I thought was really nice of them.

As the damage was a total loss and I see the contractor as 100%
liable, I would like to see the customer reimbursed for $5200 from
this contractor. This was her cost to buy a replacement TV even at
some risk. The customer keeps the repaired TV to sell.

I have about 36 pages of letters between all parties, which includes
the photos and analysis, which if necessary I can scan and send as a
pdf to whoever takes this on.

Thanks -