I recently sold a beautifully maintained 1985 motorcycle. I owned it for 6 months put only about 300 miles on it (total 25,900) and babied it while I had it. It ran wonderfully for me until the day I sold it. A young man came to inspect it, rode it for 1/2 hour, loved it, so we made a deal. He paid in cash, we signed over the title and I wrote him a bill of sale. As always I wrote AS IS when describing the sale in the bill of sale, asked him to examine it and make sure everything looked ok. He agreed and the deal was done. He rode off happy.
2 hours later he called saying he was stranded with a dead battery and need a ride. Upon returning home from an engagement, he was in my driveway angry and demanding his money back. I calmed him, offered to test the electrical system, help him repair the bike, split whatever parts it may need provided I got them online or at a discount(I DO NOT pay cycle shop repair prices!!), and let him park the bike at my residence until it was repaired. I did not offer to reverse the deal. He finally agreed and left for the night.
The next evening he returned with his roommate. I had charged the motorcycle all night the battery tested good, the stator tested good, the rectifier tested good and he witnessed me test them, however the bike still died after only a few minutes. I felt horrible for this misfortune and tried like heck to help the kid. I gave him my charger, and again calmed him and let him know my offer, to split costs and do the repair, still stood.
He came back the next night and was determined to start the bike by pull starting it behind his roommates car. I advised against this (very hard on various parts of the bike) however he insisted so off he went down the road at 40 plus miles per hour. 15 minutes later he was back, bleeding from his arms and leg, and the bike was thrashed, dented, and missing accessories. My wife bandaged him up, I went down the road to help him look for a lost saddle bag and let him park the bike at my house for another 5 days. I immediately went in and located parts that I suspected may be the culprit online at a cost of $189.00. A tow truck came to get it and haul it to the local repair shop 5 days later.
He now is sueing me for $798.92 for the repair bill, $45 for the tow bill, and wants me to report this incident to my insurance company to cover cosmetic repairs on the bike and his medical bills. By the time he had taken it on himself to crash the bike, I had long since cancelled insurance on this vehicle since I no longer owned it. The repair shop is charging $550.00 for new parts, an oil change????????, and 248.92 for labor????? Labor to replace the stator and rectifier(which would almost never go bad at the same time) is about a 1 hr job. Even at $80/hr... well you can do the math. An oil change, really? I just changed it! At any rate, I went well out of my way to help this young man, I felt horrible for what happened, but had no problem with the bike and even if there was a problem before the purchase I honestly was not aware of any. The repair shop told him it appeared someone had tried to start the bike by pulling it at a high rate of speed and abused it... hmmm. So he had the bike examined after he pulled it, wrecked it, and owned it for over a week...yet somehow its my fault.
My question legally, is where do I stand. I knew nothing of a problem, I tried to help and as far as I know legally, as soon as he left my driveway with full AS IS ownership of the vehicle, I was not obligated to him whatsoever. Can someone please direct me on my defense and legal standpoint? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
2 hours later he called saying he was stranded with a dead battery and need a ride. Upon returning home from an engagement, he was in my driveway angry and demanding his money back. I calmed him, offered to test the electrical system, help him repair the bike, split whatever parts it may need provided I got them online or at a discount(I DO NOT pay cycle shop repair prices!!), and let him park the bike at my residence until it was repaired. I did not offer to reverse the deal. He finally agreed and left for the night.
The next evening he returned with his roommate. I had charged the motorcycle all night the battery tested good, the stator tested good, the rectifier tested good and he witnessed me test them, however the bike still died after only a few minutes. I felt horrible for this misfortune and tried like heck to help the kid. I gave him my charger, and again calmed him and let him know my offer, to split costs and do the repair, still stood.
He came back the next night and was determined to start the bike by pull starting it behind his roommates car. I advised against this (very hard on various parts of the bike) however he insisted so off he went down the road at 40 plus miles per hour. 15 minutes later he was back, bleeding from his arms and leg, and the bike was thrashed, dented, and missing accessories. My wife bandaged him up, I went down the road to help him look for a lost saddle bag and let him park the bike at my house for another 5 days. I immediately went in and located parts that I suspected may be the culprit online at a cost of $189.00. A tow truck came to get it and haul it to the local repair shop 5 days later.
He now is sueing me for $798.92 for the repair bill, $45 for the tow bill, and wants me to report this incident to my insurance company to cover cosmetic repairs on the bike and his medical bills. By the time he had taken it on himself to crash the bike, I had long since cancelled insurance on this vehicle since I no longer owned it. The repair shop is charging $550.00 for new parts, an oil change????????, and 248.92 for labor????? Labor to replace the stator and rectifier(which would almost never go bad at the same time) is about a 1 hr job. Even at $80/hr... well you can do the math. An oil change, really? I just changed it! At any rate, I went well out of my way to help this young man, I felt horrible for what happened, but had no problem with the bike and even if there was a problem before the purchase I honestly was not aware of any. The repair shop told him it appeared someone had tried to start the bike by pulling it at a high rate of speed and abused it... hmmm. So he had the bike examined after he pulled it, wrecked it, and owned it for over a week...yet somehow its my fault.
My question legally, is where do I stand. I knew nothing of a problem, I tried to help and as far as I know legally, as soon as he left my driveway with full AS IS ownership of the vehicle, I was not obligated to him whatsoever. Can someone please direct me on my defense and legal standpoint? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.
