I have been posed with the task of writing a retort statement in regards to a Lawsuit that was served tothebusiness of a family friend. The family owns and runs a full service carwash (interior/exterior). A one time client went through the full wash prosses and on her way home she discovered a crack in her dash that she claims: "Must have been due to someone or something at the carwash, because it was not there when I came in!" Now first off the vehicle is a Dodge Ram, not sure of specifically which one though yet, none the less a fairly decent sized truck none the less. The only reason that anyone would of been near the dash was to clean the windshield or vacuum the floors, seeing as how she did not get a full detail job. The only person that deals with the windshields is a 50 year old, 90 or so pound woman. The owner of the vehicle is serving the company for$1,500 for parts and labor, once again claiming that the business caused it. One more factor: we are in Texas. Anyonewho has been toTexas knows about the Texas heat, humidity, etc.

Does anyone have any say in the matter? I'm not very knowledgeable about Dodges so any advice, help or anecdotes would be much appreciated. Thank You!

 

well, find out what year it is....im not from texas but up here in tulsa oklahoma, we have very high humidity and heat just like you guys...i had an 01 ram, the dash cracked pretty much from one end to the other...i know a lot of people with the 2nd gen rams had this problem.....i am not sure about the newer rams though. good luck

drew

 

I belive there is a problem with the second gen dashes cracking. Do a search and I believe there are some articles written about it onthis website.

 

Just curious, but why are youfiling the answerto the lawsuit and not a lawyer? There are deadlines that you must meet or else the car wash will be in default. The answer must be the words of the defendant and be notarized. If by "retort" you mean that you will be called as a witness for the defense, you'll be thrown off the stand before you're even sworn in.

But based on the claims, this is a typical scam that a lot of people try to run. Something is cosmetically damaged on their car or truck and they run it through a car wash and then claim it was damaged by them.

 

They're betting that the claim for "only" $1500 will be paid just to avoid the expense of litigation.

 

Consult a lawyer dude. If its the top dash panel cover, thats like $100 and its held by 8 clips. Its a 2 minute replacement. But like said before, we dont know year model or the details. We aints lawyers, so dont takes our words. We are just giving advice. Did the lady come back and try to work something out with yous friend and your friend gave her the boot, treated her like crap?
If your friend can prove that there are issues with her model truck by cracking, like bring testimony from dealers and crap like that, you might have something, otherwise tell the lady that your friend will take care it on his own and it might be cheaper. But if there is bad blood between thems, its like divorcing a scornfull woman, she'll take him to the cleaners.

 

actually, its not $100 (if its a 2nd gen, idk about 3rd gens)...i looked into getting one for my ram before i sold it and the dealer said the whole dash is one piece and would cost 400-500 (i dont remember) just for the dash...i would have put it in myself...that price does not include labor

 

It is possible to crack a dash that has been in that type of climate for a few years with very little presure. The dash may have been on the verge of cracking by its selfand the lady cleaning the window could have placed her hand on the dash and pressed down and unintentionaly cracked it. Regardless though if the dash was fine going into the car wash and cracked afterwards I know I'd be a little bent to say the least. Anything that enters your property to have a service done to it is automatically under your supervision and not the owners so if one of the employees screw something up it the buisnesses job to fix the problem. Put it this way, you bring your car/truck to a dealership for itsgeneral maintanence and there is absolutely nothing wrong and when you pick it up there are dents everywhere and a cracked window, who whouild you blame?So if that was the case where the employee did break the dash then yes your company should be responcible for it and should pay for it to be replaced and cover any of the costs that would accure because the vehicle was down (rental, ect.). Now if she took it home and afew hourslater brings it back complaining about then you have a little bit of room to fight it and it could be a scam.

 

I seem to recall that those that use armor all on the dash almost all get cracks by the vents.

And its common even you don't use armor all. Here is a link to a thread on that very subject;

http://dodgetruckworld.tenmagazines....ed_anyone_else

 

Also claiming that that year and model of truck has a high tendency of dash boards breaking means absolutely nothing if it was brought in uncracked and was picked up cracked.