Poll of the Day > this claimant is 500lbs and has broken 4 chairs in my insured's hair salon

(+) Yeah! (+)

i said i'd tell that guy to stop coming to my salon

my coworker said that opens the insured up to a lawsuit for discrimination

i said fat people aren't a protected class and that isn't a valid lawsuit so it'd get thrown out

he says that's horrible PR

i said i don't give a shit, i'd just say how i have to buy a new chair every time this guy comes to my fucking salon and those chair aren't cheap

how can you even show your face if you keep breaking those chairs

let alone have the balls to file a bodily injury claim claiming you strained your whole back because YOU broke the chair with your obesity

america sucks
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What do you think the cutoff should be for the max amount of weight a business' chairs are legally forced to adhere to?

those chairs are commercial industrial grade chairs, man.
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Jen0125 posted...

those chairs are commercial industrial grade chairs, man.

That's avoiding the question and I'm not criticizing your evaluation in this case, I'm just curious to know how far you go with it.

Is this gonna be SMT soon
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EightySeven posted...

That's avoiding the question and I'm not criticizing your evaluation in this case, I'm just curious to know how far you go with it.

i don't know that there is a "legally enforceable" number. or that there should be.

this is just a frivolous claim. it should be common sense that if you allow yourself to get up to 500 lbs and break a commercial industrial grade chair and get injured that that is your own fucking fault.

no human being needs to be or should be 500lbs.
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Can't he get banned for breaking chairs?
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Fym soon
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lol
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Pay me my money Jen
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Almost no humans need or should be 300lbs either. You could make a similar statement at that threshold despite the fact that it would affect a non-trivial percentage of the population.

JOExHIGASHI posted...

Can't he get banned for breaking chairs?

i fucking would ban him from my business. those things are EXPENSIVE. his haircut is like $30 and he's breaking my chairs that are easily hundreds of dollars. no way man.
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EightySeven posted...

Almost no humans need or should be 300lbs either. You could make a similar statement at that threshold despite the fact that it would affect a non-trivial percentage of the population.

What does this have to do with the claim in question?

Jen0125 posted...

JOExHIGASHI posted...

Can't he get banned for breaking chairs?

i fucking would ban him from my business. those things are EXPENSIVE. his haircut is like $30 and he's breaking my chairs that are easily hundreds of dollars. no way man.

I dunno why this is the post that got me laughing

The mental image came into view so vividly
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EightySeven posted...

Almost no humans need or should be 300lbs either. You could make a similar statement at that threshold despite the fact that it would affect a non-trivial percentage of the population.

and? i agree. unless you're really tall most human beings don't need to be 300lbs.

i don't know why you're moving goal posts.
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Jen0125 posted...

and? i agree. unless you're really tall most human beings don't need to be 300lbs.

i don't know why you're moving goal posts.

Umm I'm not? The goalpost was "how far are you wiling to extend that logic" which my statement falls within.

I'm talking about this claim.
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RCtheWSBC posted...

What does this have to do with the claim in question?

It has to do with the reasons why the OP thinks the claim is frivolous. Clearly there's a cutoff point where the claim would go from frivolous to not frivolous. For a ridiculous example on the other end, if the chairs collapsed under 100lbs then I think the OP would agree that the salon should probably be held liable. I was just curious where she thinks that line is.

I'm actually curious as to why the salon owner didn't ban this person after breaking the second chair.

You broke the first, ok, maybe there was a manufacturing defect.

You break the second, obviously these chairs weren't made to support your weight, so unless you want to pay for a specially-crafted tungsten-reinforced titanium chair, you're outta here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oARVdCyRT98

Jen0125 posted...

I'm talking about this claim.

And I was asking a question that you were perfectly free not to respond to.

EightySeven posted...

It has to do with the reasons why the OP thinks the claim is frivolous. Clearly there's a cutoff point where the claim would go from frivolous to not frivolous. For a ridiculous example on the other end, if the chairs collapsed under 100lbs then I think the OP would agree that the salon should probably be held liable. I was just curious where she thinks that line is.

because a morbidly obese man broke a commercial industrial grade chair due to his own weight causing his own injury and thinks someone else should be responsible.

and he has broken 3 other chairs of the exact same type... so it's OBVIOUS that chair doesn't support his weight. he has prior notice the chair doesn't support his weight and continues to choose to use the salon.
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You're not going to win dude
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Jen0125 posted...

because a morbidly obese man broke a commercial industrial grade chair due to his own weight causing his own injury and thinks someone else should be responsible.

You know this would have saved us both some time if you had just opened with "I don't want to answer that question" or didn't respond at all rather than equivocating.

SmokeMassTree posted...

You're not going to win dude

I wasn't trying to win, but ok point taken. This conversation is going nowhere fast.

Is this like, confidential?
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Imagine being that fat and being in denial that things like this are your fault

Wait, what if all the chairs broke during the same visit?
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EightySeven posted...

You know this would have saved us both some time if you had just opened with "I don't want to answer that question" or didn't respond at all rather than equivocating.

i am point blank answering your question. no one else is responsible for his injury but him. there is no magic number cut off. you're trying to get an answer that doesn't exist.

AwesomeTurtwig posted...

Is this like, confidential?

no, there's no personally identifiable information.
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SkynyrdRocker posted...

Imagine being that fat and being in denial that things like this are your fault

it happens all the time at my job. it's really sad.
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The salon owner and the employees there have a responsibility to speak up and tell him not to use the chairs. He is dumb for keep going back and sitting on their chairs, but the people working at the salon are worse and liable for letting it continue to happen. Fair, next. Pay SMT his money.

GameLord113 posted...

The salon owner and the employees there have a responsibility to speak up and tell him not to use the chairs. He is dumb for keep going back and sitting on their chairs, but the people working at the salon are worse and liable for letting it continue to happen. Fair, next. Pay SMT his money.

No they don't. They discovered it the first time when he did because he's the one who broke the chair. After that, he was aware their chairs couldn't hold him. They don't have a duty to warn him because he already knows. There is no duty to warn someone of a hazard they already know about.

"hey by the way don't forget you've broken 3 of our chairs already fatty"
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He does have some shared responsibility, but if the employees sat him down on that chair knowing that it would probably break, they are liable.

no they aren't. i'm telling you they aren't. i do this for a living and would literally put 0 percent comparative on my insured for this claim.

if you come to my salon and want to sit in my chair knowing you've already broken 3 of my chairs in the past and STILL want to get your hair cut that's all on you buddy.
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I am really hoping this dude broke all four chairs in one visit

hahahahah ah man
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If they instructed him to sit down in the chair, they absolutely are liable.

GameLord113 posted...

If they instructed him to sit down in the chair, they absolutely are liable.

no they aren't lmao

they run a business. they are there to serve a customer. if the customer comes in knowing they're TOO FAT to use my chair and still insist on getting their hair done that's their own fucking problem.

if they have ANY comparative it's like 0-10% so i'd offer nothing.


RCtheWSBC posted...

I am really hoping this dude broke all four chairs in one visit

hahahahah ah man

no it wasn't it was over the span of 4 different visits which is the surreal part.

i'd ban him from coming to my shop.
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Jen0125 posted...

EightySeven posted...

It has to do with the reasons why the OP thinks the claim is frivolous. Clearly there's a cutoff point where the claim would go from frivolous to not frivolous. For a ridiculous example on the other end, if the chairs collapsed under 100lbs then I think the OP would agree that the salon should probably be held liable. I was just curious where she thinks that line is.

because a morbidly obese man broke a commercial industrial grade chair due to his own weight causing his own injury and thinks someone else should be responsible.

and he has broken 3 other chairs of the exact same type... so it's OBVIOUS that chair doesn't support his weight. he has prior notice the chair doesn't support his weight and continues to choose to use the salon.

I would suggest that the salon owner make the man pay for the broken chairs.
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Jen0125 posted...

no it wasn't it was over the span of 4 different visits which is the surreal part.

i'd ban him from coming to my shop.

Goddamn this is so nuts lol

After chair #2 I really would have ended that customer relationship.
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SusanGreenEyes posted...

Jen0125 posted...

EightySeven posted...

It has to do with the reasons why the OP thinks the claim is frivolous. Clearly there's a cutoff point where the claim would go from frivolous to not frivolous. For a ridiculous example on the other end, if the chairs collapsed under 100lbs then I think the OP would agree that the salon should probably be held liable. I was just curious where she thinks that line is.

because a morbidly obese man broke a commercial industrial grade chair due to his own weight causing his own injury and thinks someone else should be responsible.

and he has broken 3 other chairs of the exact same type... so it's OBVIOUS that chair doesn't support his weight. he has prior notice the chair doesn't support his weight and continues to choose to use the salon.

I would suggest that the salon owner make the man pay for the broken chairs.

That's what I would do too. Take him to small claims for the fucking chairs dude.
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If this guy even has a half decent lawyer it will be an easy win for him. Who knows if the guy is suffering from some type of mental disorder. He is 500 pounds ffs. As the business owner you have a responsibility to protect a customer from themselves when they are inside your store. Knowing that he has broken the chairs before, you can not tell him to continue using the equipment. You can either accommodate the individual, like using a waiting room chair, or tell them sorry, we don't want to take the risk of you hurting yourself by breaking the equipment.

You are not correct. I'm sorry. Idk what you do for a living but him having a potential mental disorder is inconsequential to this.

I don't know why people come in these topics and try to tell me I'm wrong. I literally do this for a living. I'm sorry. You're not right.

He has such heavy comparative on him that this is a nuisance claim and we would offer him medical payments coverage up to the limit on the policy since there was an injury on the property and since he was fully aware that he couldn't use the chairs but continued to try to use them anyway its an open and obvious defect for him likely assess 0-10% liability against our insured and offer him like $500 to go away.

If he doesn't like that he can get an attorney and sue. Good luck finding a sympathetic jury with the facts at hand. You look like a dumbass fishing for an insurance settlement.
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Oh and here's a heads up, as a business owner you have a duty to warn of any defects that may be unknown to your customers that could cause them injury. This a) isn't a defect technically and b) isn't unknown to this customer. He is willingly taking this hazard on to himself and assuming the risk by agreeing to get his hair cut at this establishment. He has the choice as a consumer to go to any other business. Our insured doesn't have a duty to turn him away.
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Hey I'm not saying he's entitled to millions of dollars or anything like that, but like you said medical care coverage up to the limit of the policy. If he wants more he can sue, but probably wouldn't get much more unless there were extensive soft tissue injuries.

Just so you know medical payments coverage is not a liability coverage so that gets paid regardless of liability. You keep saying they're liable. And I disagree entirely with your assessment.

Liability coverage is where a settlement comes from if the insured is negligent.
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Doubt it would ever go in front of a jury, and yes, you are generally responsible for injuries that happen on your property, even if the customer does something stupid to cause it (like sitting on a chair that obviously won't support them).

The fact here is you could have refused service to this customer after the first time he broke a char (and should have). He did not just walk in and sit down on a chair randomly, someone working there led him to a chair and told him to sit in it.

The Blob could have been in denial about the cause of the chairs breaking, or he could have just thought maybe it wouldn't happen again, or he could have been hoping he got injured eventually so he could sue you.

Whatever the motivation, the end result is an injury that happened to him while in the saloon, and the ability for him to then sue the owners.

He might not win, but quite often it's cheaper to just pay off someone that does this, then to go through the court, which could even be what he was going for.

I am not in insurance, but I do know how the law works and how many people try and take advantage of the laws to get money (and often fail...which this person may do as well).

The point is that even if it's crazy, people do win these lawsuits, which is why they keep happening.

I agree that the chars are not at fault at all, sadly though, it's quite likely that it could be determined that the person who directed him to sit in the chairs....was (especially after the first time).

In fact, I think those chairs actually do have a weight limit. Yep I looked it up (google it and you'll see it's 350). This means the people working at a salon need to know that the chairs have a weight limit and prevent people who weight more then 350 from using them.

It's not the customers responsibility to know that. Since that is the case, if you let a customer who weighs more then 350 pounds sit in your chair, you are at fault almost certainly, and he can win his case.
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A lawyer could easily argue that the owners where being negligent by allowing and/or instructing him to continue using the chair. I know you disagree and I don't know all the facts of the case like you do, but that's my opinion of it on the limited information I have.

wolfy42 posted...

yes, you are generally responsible for injuries that happen on your property, ev

This is not true. You are not "generally responsible for injuries that happen on your property" unless you have notice of a defect and fail to warn. Most injuries on people's property are not due to defects to be honest. They're due to people just tripping and falling on things they perceive to be defects but aren't. And they don't prevail in court.

States have defined what are and aren't defects in order to stop nuisance suits from going to court and clogging up the system and wasting people's time. Attorneys will still take claims hoping for a quick settlement and drop clients once we deny claims and issue med pay because they don't want to do anymore work when they see they won't get a quick settlement. It happens all the time.

There's a lot of misinformation in this thread.
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It's weird how many people think they understand this better than Jen, who literally does this for a living.

It would seem the description of the chair, when you purchased it, would have a weight limit mentioned. Maybe you could talk to the person privately.

I did say I don't know about insurance, just how things go down in court usually. Also it may vary from state to state as well, and it certainly was not my type of law.
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I remember some story about how there was outrage about how a dentist refused service to a morbidly obese person because he was afraid the person would break his chair.

I was like, fuck dude, I wouldn't let them in either. That shit ain't cheap.
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