Am i reliable or is she?
ok here is my problem a person asked me to do a tune up on a car and when i started i was taking the spark plugs out when one of the spark plugs head broke off leaving the threads in the head i then used an easy out to try to take it out and the easy out broke off in the threads so now they are both stuck meaning the head has to come off to fix it when i asked the person about the spark plug she said that her grandfather used a air tool to install the spark plugs and may have cross threaded the one spark plug she wants me to pay for the fix am i reliable for this fix or would it be her and her grandfather?
Answers:
You are asking if she is "liable" not reliable.
The answer is that if you were doing it for money or some other consideration then yes you could be found liable.
(you may not be if you can prove they had not properly maintained the vehicle but that is difficult to prove).
If you were just doing a favor then no you are not liable.
Those who say it doesn't matter if you were doing it as a favor are oversimplifying the situation. She could sue you but I doubt a jury would hold you accountable if you acted in good faith when doing a favor for no compensation.
For example, if you asked me to help you change a tire as a favor and I didn't tighten the lug nuts tight enough because I don't know what I'm doing, that's your fault for not exercising due care before asking me for help. If the tire comes off and you run into a ditch you cannot sue me for helping you. With no consideration, no contract, and my amateur status as a tire changer any jury in the world would say "what did you expect?"
This is the good Samaritan principle. It doesn't prevent someone from suing you but it makes it difficult to win.
Like I said a contract is different.
It doesn't matter whether you were doing it for money or not - it it's your fault, you're liable - if it's not your fault, you're not liable. You need to have an independent expert look closely at the head and decide whether the thread was already stripped (i.e. not your fault) or whether your actions caused the damage.
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