Friday, March 16, 2007

What if people sue?

The other day, I spent time reading a document towards our house purchase - a house inspection report. A bad document. Not only because it is flooded with mundane details, but also because of lack of certainty in every aspect of the report. At the end of reading the document, I can summarize as follows:

  1. The water heater looks fine from the exterior. If you really need the water heater tested, please contact a water heater specialist.
  2. The air cooler looks fine from the exterior. If you really need the air cooler tested, please contact a air cooler specialist.
  3. The floor tiles look fine from the exterior. If you really need the floor tiles inspected, please contact a floor tiles specialist.
  4. The gas burner looks fine from the exterior. If you really need the gas burner inspected thoroughly, please contact a gas burner specialist.

You could read the report, but to really understand the report, please contact a specialist report reader.

Underlying issue: What if people sue?

I could be a doctor and say I could check your blood pressure, but if you want to be sure about the sphygmammometer readings, you should go to a sphygmammometer specialist.I could check your temperature and say to be sure please check with the thermometer specialist.
What if I get sued for reading the wrong temperature?

The doctor example was extreme, but I have never left the office of any professional in the USA sure about the statements - caveats and exclusions rule the roost.

I enjoyed my dinner yesterday, but if you want to be sure, you better ask my taste glands.

5 comments:

Suresh Sankaralingam said...

Yes, you could... If it is genuine, you might win too. These people (especially doctors) carry a lot of liability to cover up for their, for lack of better word, "inadequacies". It is interesting that the engineers community is usually shunned away from such liability issues...

Good stuff...

Manohar said...

@saumya: rofl

But I wonder if the reason the home inspection looks vague is because its really a superficial visual inspection- the whole idea of which is to just give a rough idea......

Meera Manohar said...

I was given to b've through our real estate agent and through various online resources that property inspection reports are just what they say they are. Overall Superficial Inspection!!

The only advantage of the inspection is for them to visually see, point out things that they see not conforming to codes of that county. So guess if we see it that way-- then it's just a guide for us to take more steps as and where needed.

As to doctors,, well that's a different thing :) Also, it's sphygmomanometer not mammometer

Peace Saumya :)

sdpal said...

@Saumyas taste glands:
Was the food tasty ?

@Meera:
Sandhadi saakula CP udura paar!

nourish-n-cherish said...

Meera...just because sphymm.....meter has "Mano" in it, you mugged up the spelling ;)