Legal Question in Technology Law in Minnesota

Legal liability on a computer job
Hello. A friend of mine owns a computer company which is formed as a corporation

Im an ex-employee of this computer firm. The owner pulled me in to install a tape backup solution for an insurance firm about 2 years ago.

I put it in and got it working and told the lady who would be doing backups to check the logs to make sure the backups work and to swap the tapes nightly.

We have gone out to their office a few times over the past two years to check their computers. The owner of the insurance place assumed we would check the tape backup while we were out there. One time we did check them and AT THAT TIME, they were fine. Meaning it looked like they were being backed up ok.

Well since that time, the lady administrator was fired (we think) because she was incompetant as an admin. Just yesterday their whole computer crashed and the bakups were no good either.

My friends computer company doesnt have errors and omissions insurance and shouldnt need it (Right?) in this case because we werent in charge of doing his nightly backups.

My question is to what extent is my friend liable for a lawsuit in this deal? We setup the backup but the client maintained it. The insurance owner thinks we are at fault.

Thank you.

Asked on 10/11/06, 2:34 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Daniel Pepper Pepper Law Group, LLC

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Re: Legal liability on a computer job

The answer primarily depends upon the terms and conditions of the contract between the computer company and the insurance firm. What was the computer company's specific obligations with respect to the tape backups? Were there any warranties in the agreement and specific remedies for problems?

Answered on 10/11/06, 2:40 pm

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