Legal Question in Construction Law in Virginia
Liability of workmanship prior to becomming an S-Corp
I had a small business when I installed a small generator in Feb 2002. At the time I had no business insurance. Today in September 2003 15 months after the unit was installed the user claims it was to small for the site and has threatened legal action to get me to make ammends. At the present I am an S-Corp with business insurance. If it does go to court will my personal be protected by me now being an S-Corp instead of just a small business?
The problem with defending the size of the equipment installed is that there is no paperwork between myself and the owner relaying his choice to go with the smaller generator due to budget cost. Everything was pretty much verbal, there was no written specs or scope of work either.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Liability of workmanship prior to becomming an S-Corp
You have not identified who the "user" is in your question. If this person was a purchaser
of the generator, then the standard commercial warranties would most likely apply in regard to
covering any defective parts in the machine itself.
However, if the problem is that the generator itself is merely too small and is otherwise adequately functional, I don't see how you could be held liable for this since it was the purchaser himself who made the decision to purchase a generator of this size.