Broken mooring....Do I have to pay?

I agree 100% - you should recoupe your losses if someone else (or you) causes damage to your property. My point is that the value of your loss is directly tied to the value of the asset that incurred the loss and is not at all tied to debt you have on the asset - but now we're way off topic and talking about stuff that likely has a value over $750.
 
Last edited:
Isn't it amazing how the guy that showed up and broke this guys property is now the "victim?" Good grief.... If you don't like the price, go fix the thing yourself and put it back exactly the way you found it.... That'll cost you more than $750.

You all lost the whole thing on your car example. If I bought a new car and then become upside down on it, you'll have to replace the equivalent financing as well as the equivalent car... My damages are more than the car. You should check out the interest rates on buying a used car financing 125% of the asset value compared to buying a new car and financing it.

Some of this comes down to honorable people as well. The "F.U." attitude here is amazing for something the mooring ball owner did nothing to deserve. Why didn't the guy that broke it contact the owner? He reports it to some dope that has a summer job at a marina (which has no obligation/relationship to the owner) and thinks "good enough! Let's move on!". That kind of attitude would get you banned from even a Bayliner owners forum.
 
To me, this is a simple matter of just replacing what you destroyed.
Click to expand...
Ok let me put it this way, If i broke something of yours that was old and you knew it !!. Why should i buy you all brand new stuff ?. Because it was ready to break at anytime !!. So you should get all new stuff out of this ??. I say NOT. And Thanks for the beer. :smt038
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Are mooring balls depreciating assets? I know my dock wasn't... If a storm wiped it out, I got a new dock... not a used one. Most "dwelling" assets have replacement value on the insurance and are not like a car/boat.... Maybe when a hurricane hits Florida, we should get some "used" houses up north and just truck em in.

At the end of the day, YOU BROKE THE MOORING BALL. If you want to go back to Block Island and fix it yourself to put it back the way it was with your own contractors, GREAT! Otherwise, just send him the money and stop trying to convince the world you are being victimized! GOOD GRIEF!
 
Last edited:
Searaycruisn posted back on #45 he intended to submit the bill to his insurance co. He then stated if his insurance co denies this type of claim he would contact the owner to settle. Whether he pays full market value or some type of prorated sum is yet to be determined.

Who knows if the grieved party just put the mooring down or is looking for a free upgrade. He may or may not even repaired the mooring yet. Could have just gotten an estimate and is looking to commit some sota insurance fraud. This all is yet to be determined pending the insurance claim and a possible meeting with the grieved.

I do think the grieved should be notified in the same manor via certified mail with the proposed intentions.

IMHO: given the persnizel searaycruisin is in … how else could the guy be handling something like this. …Ron
 
Otherwise, just send him the money
Click to expand...
Hey 4Suns maybe you could help a fellow boating out and send the money for him ??. :smt043, Theres times when you've got to stand your grounds !!. As i said I wouldn't buy this guy all brand new stuff. :smt021
 
Wayne's World said:
Ok let me put it this way, If i broke something of yours that was old and you knew it !!. Why should i buy you all brand new stuff ?. Because it was ready to break at anytime !!. So you should get all new stuff out of this ??. I say NOT. And Thanks for the beer. :smt038
Click to expand...

hey, let's all go "borrow" waynes boat and run it WOT all summer. If it breaks, his tough ****.
 
hey, let's all go "borrow" waynes boat and run it WOT all summer. If it breaks, his tough ****.
Click to expand...
Anytime !!. Its a Sea Ray she NEVER breaks down :smt038, Just bring beer money :grin:
 
I think people are hardwired to either embrace personal responsibility, or to avoid it. I have tried to instill in my kids (by example and occasional thrashings) that it rarely hurts to step up to the plate and take responsibility for things that simply could be your fault...but should be your responsibility. However, all around us, I see SO much effort spent rationalizing how to avoid responsibility. How can you be a responsible individual when 500 commercials a day tell you its always everyone's fault but your own.

The difference in attitude is striking.

Maybe my former job has given me a special irritation for responsibility avoidance...and generally churlish behavior. I think that I would have been mortified to have hooked up to a mooring, and then found it was someone else's property and that it broke while I was on it...mortified and absolutely responsible. I certainly wouldn't have wanted someone to take advantage of my responsible nature, but within reason I want to be the standup guy that steps up. I made a pretty good living being paid to shift responsibility where it didn't belong and hope that in my personal life I have tried to bend over backward in the other direction. As I have tried to explain to my kids...sometimes that may make you a shmuck. Sometimes it will cost you a few bucks that you could have otherwise invested in bacchanalia. But in exchange, you get both a sterling reputation and a sense of what it means to be honorable. And my actual experience has been that stepping up to the plate is cheaper in the long run...people don't expect it and tend to be pretty forgiving.

Just a rant...not directed at anyone in particular.
 
Insurance, especially any type of Fire Insurance (like home insurance) will allow the claimant to receive "betterment". This describes the replacement of "new for old".

A court of law however, does not regognize "betterment". The cost of repair or a depreciated value based on the age/condition of the item and using an appropriate scale of depreciation is used in determining damages. Unless a mooring buoy lasts "forever" under normal use, depreciation is going to be a reality.

Insurance claims were mentioned, but a claim is not too possible on the buoy owner's side unless he has a deductible lower than $750 (not likely). The offending boater could put a claim in on his insurance for property damage, but they will only consider paying the claim IF they see there is a legal obligation to pay. Even then, they will NOT pay "betterment" to the owner of the ball.

That being said, why not just find out what it would cost to just have the chain retrieved and the ball reattached? Then pay that if it's less than the $750?
 
mhtimber said:
Speaking as someone who does own a mooring, I would be mighty displeased if someone poached my mooring ball, broke it, and then took off without leaving a note as to how to contact them to discuss payment for the damage they caused.
Click to expand...

Leave a note on the bottom of the chain, or with the harbour master like he did.
 
Four Suns said:
At the end of the day, YOU BROKE THE MOORING BALL. If you want to go back to Block Island and fix it yourself to put it back the way it was with your own contractors, GREAT! Otherwise, just send him the money and stop trying to convince the world you are being victimized! GOOD GRIEF!
Click to expand...


Well said!!!!
 
Hampton said:
Leave a note on the bottom of the chain, or with the harbour master like he did.
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm missing something. What the hell does that have to do with the price of rice in China? If someone hit my car in the Best Buy parking lot and went and told the cashier at Wendy's, why are they under any obligation to find me?

I had someone hit my boat on my private dock back in 2003 (and took off and didn't leave a note)... I guess I should have checked with Kingsmill Marina to see if someone told them about it... I guess the guy that hit my boat was the "victim" though. He probably got on a boating forum and said I deserved it and I was just trying to take advantage of him.
 
Last edited:
If someone hit my car in the Best Buy parking lot and went and told the cashier at Wendy's, why are they under any obligation to find me?
Click to expand...
You're just being silly with that way of thinking, :grin:
 
tc410 said:
The point of my post is that you could likely prove ownership of your car through title and/or registration before any money exchanged hands. I would expect the same of the mooring ball owner before any discussion of compensation took place.

And as for the car example, you will only get fair market value for your totaled car. If you are careless with your financing and upside down by $2k, then why would it be anyone elses problem (expcept for Obama maybe) to bail you out?
Click to expand...

It's a basic legal principle that you only get the value of what you lost if someone damages your property. If your lost property is old you get the value of the old property. To ask the OP to replace a crappy mooring (assuming it was crappy) with a new one results in the mooring owner getting more than he had before, and the OP paying for more than he damaged.

Don't confuse replacement cost insurance with common law negligence. They are different concepts.

It's easy to tell the OP about his moral obligation to pay for this $750 incident. How moral would you'all be if it was you, and this was a $75,000 issue? My guess is you would be running to your lawyer and looking for a way out.
 
Four Suns said:
I had someone hit my boat on my private dock back in 2003 (and took off and didn't leave a note)... I guess I should have checked with Kingsmill Marina to see if someone told them about it... I guess the guy that hit my boat was the "victim" though. He probably got on a boating forum and said I deserved it and I was just trying to take advantage of him.
Click to expand...

He should have asked you for compensation for having your boat mored at your private dock...just think if your boat wasn't there he wouldn't have hit your boat and thus would have saved any damage to his boat. I am sure he was most upset with you. :smt043
 
Four Suns said:
Maybe I'm missing something. What the hell does that have to do with the price of rice in China? If someone hit my car in the Best Buy parking lot and went and told the cashier at Wendy's, why are they under any obligation to find me?

I had someone hit my boat on my private dock back in 2003 (and took off and didn't leave a note)... I guess I should have checked with Kingsmill Marina to see if someone told them about it... I guess the guy that hit my boat was the "victim" though. He probably got on a boating forum and said I deserved it and I was just trying to take advantage of him.
Click to expand...

Apples and Oranges. Nievely, he thought it was public. There were zero markings on it. It went away during the storm. He notfied the people he thought owned it. Not a perfect scenario, but he's making good of it. He's asking our advice before proceeding. His intentions may not have been perfectly pure, but he didn't run away. Let's help him proceed appropriately.

If they hit your boat and sunk it before seeing the name, and then notified the Coast Guard, that would be a better analogy.
 
sfergson727 said:
That's true, but don't you think the mere fact that the person got in touch with the OP makes the odds favor that he is the owner of the mooring. He obviously got his contact info from the Harbor Master, based on the incident report submitted. How would someone who doesn't own the ball even know that one was destroyed on that evening?

As for the other, That is what lawyers ARE for, because people often don't do what is right.
Click to expand...

Is one thing to not do what is right. The scary thing is that they don't recognize whats right to do. After reading the OPs many reasons for evading his responsibility I think he looks like a cheapskate. He doesn't want to pay anything and blamed the owner for not having a mooring that was able to hold his 38' SR. The mooring owner should have added a nites mooring fee on the bill.
 
JimT said:
It's easy to tell the OP about his moral obligation to pay for this $750 incident. How moral would you'all be if it was you, and this was a $75,000 issue? My guess is you would be running to your lawyer and looking for a way out.
Click to expand...

No exactly - in that case I bet most of us would contact our insurance company (this is why we pay insurance).

On a side note there was a reference or two in this tread about handing this particular situation to insurance. I am willing to bet the deductable on a 38' boat is more than $750? If not darn near close...so I'd suggest paying (whatever amount is negotiated with the mooring ball owner) outside of insurance and keeping a clean insurance record.

If you do cut a check to the mooring ball owner put a note on the check in regarding full and final restitution / compensation payment and it wouldn't hurt to have a simple signed note saying that said payment releases you from any further liability.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,188
Messages
1,428,236
Members
61,099
Latest member
Lorenzo512
Back
Top