Perhaps I just need some advice

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Sylph
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24 Mar 2014, 4:00 pm

I've already asked a few others for some advice on this situation but I still don't know how I should go about it or what would be the correct thing to do in this case. It's been stressing me out throughout the entire weekend.

However this situation begins with someone dating for over a year now. And not too long ago they accidentally elbowed something worth roughly a grand off their bedside. Their father doesn't want to get it repaired and considered it broken, and wants said object to be paid back to him in full. Or be kicked out and sued for damages, to be clear his father is suing him. Originally his father gave him half a day to get this money, which I don't think is reasonable.

At the moment, he has been looking for work for the past two weeks and finally found someone who might give him the job he needs however his father does not believe him for whatever reasons why. I guess I just want to know how someone else would go about it if they were in a similar situation. I just simply don't know what to do for them...



pete42
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24 Mar 2014, 7:18 pm

Important questions to establish if there is a case to sue.

1. what got knocked off the bedside (table)? an ornament? a laptop?

2. Who put it in the place where it could easily be knocked over?

3. is it genuinely repairable?

4. how long ago was the incident, in months?

5. was your boyfriend being obviously reckless ( jumping around waving his arms around etc) or was it a simple accident ( reaching out in the dark not realising something was there).

To be honest, any father that threatens to sue their own son over $1000 accidental breakage is an jerk.


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Sylph
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24 Mar 2014, 8:04 pm

1. A tablet specifically an ipad.

2. He didn't put it there, his father gave it to his other son (his brother whose of toddler age) and probably just left it on his bed when he was sitting on his older brother's bed to play with it. To be honest...I think giving anything to a toddler means you don't mind the object coming back in pieces.

3. Just a simple broken screen and probably a cable or something broken internally, easily fixed at the apple store or a repair shop.

4. The incident was on Friday night.

5. I'm sure roughhousing with any sibling(s) in the house usually breaks at least something, that's what he and his brother were doing on his bed, he most likely didn't even realize the ipad was there.

I think another buddy of mine called his dad a ...biggotry.



pete42
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24 Mar 2014, 9:12 pm

OK.. this is simple. Your boyfriend isn't in anyway responsible for the damage to the iPad, either legally or morally, since the father was the one who negligently entrusted the iPad to a toddler.

Of course that doesn't help when it comes to your boyfriend's relationship with his father, but I guess that's a whole different set of issues.

Probably the best thing to do is for your boyfriend to calmly tell his father that he's not responsible and that's the end of the matter. If the father gets mad, your bf should stay calm, and repeat that it's not his responsibility. As father raises his voice, bf should lower his, forcing the father to stop shouting to listen. Don't rise to the bait. It will be emotional for your boyfriend - nobody likes fighting with their dad, so you job is to calm, comfort and support him.


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izzeme
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25 Mar 2014, 8:32 am

to add to pete, i think the suing is just a threat, i do not think the dad will win more then the repair cost, if anything.
it is entirely unreasonable to expect a full repayment for something that got damaged into a repairable state, especially if said damage happened outside of the fault of the damaging person.



Greatsharkbite
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25 Mar 2014, 9:38 am

Also I agree, the Dad's being a jerk to an extent, a payment plan of some kind would be reasonable.

But it all depends on what kind of person your bf is, is he reliable and trustworthy? Has stuff like this occurred previously or has Dad just had enough?

But yeah i'd verify the price, like a top end ipad.. with a lot of memory is a little over $800, I wonder if dad is just trying to make him pay extra.



Sylph
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25 Mar 2014, 12:33 pm

The reason why his dad is like this is most likely due to a really old ancient tradition in his native country, which affects all males in the family line. My bf doesn't purposely breaks things and this would be the first thing he's accidentally broken even though he's not at fault.

If you have ever met those kind of people who always has to buy the more expensive version of a product over one that's cheaper, even though their specs are nearly identical. The only ipads I know that cost nearly a grand with tax are those cellular models...which was most likely what his father bought.



tarantella64
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25 Mar 2014, 9:22 pm

This is your boyfriend's prob with his dad, not yours. Your job is to support your boyfriend in handling the thing however he sees fit.



nick007
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28 Mar 2014, 12:40 am

I don't think the dad cuold sue & win for damages sense the dad gave it to the toddler who left it there when your boyfreind didn't know it was there. However his dad could still kick him out & try to sue him for other things like not paying rent or not paying his share of the household expenses if they had come to some kind of agreement for him to & he wasn't paying at one point for whatever reason. If the dad is a real jerk he could lie & say they had an agreement for your boyfriend to pay when there was never an agreement for him to or his dad could lie & say he wasn't paying when he was.


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