California Surveyors Forums

This last Friday I was doing a boundary survey in a rural subdivision and my Nikon Total Station was set up near the edge of a 30' wide county maintained roadway. My choice of locations for was limited by line of sight on a curved road and the need to set a work point through a narrow walkway between my client's house and the neighbor. There is very little traffic on this road and there are no curbs defining driveways; my setup was in front of the gate used by the property owner across the road from my client. My tripod legs were all within the ROW and the neighbors access to her gate was partially blocked by my setup. The property owner returned while I was about 150' away from the setup and rather that using her horn or calling out, she got out of her car and forcefully pushed my instrument of to the side causing extensive damage to the total station. I was close enough to hear the instrument hit the ground and I used my phone to video her reaction to my return within seconds of the incident. She was completely unapologetic and justified her act because I "shouldn't have been in her driveway." I called the Sheriffs who took my report and interviewed her. She said she tried to pick up the instrument and it fell. The damage to the keypad and screen in suggests the instrument was shoved with some force. Her entire demeanor indicates hostility. Does anyone have any experience with issues and remedy associated with this type of malicious destruction of my survey equipment?

Hoo-boy, that must have been tough to watch!

Your insurance company will likely pursue a tort claim for the malicious activity for its reimbursement. You, of course, will be a percipient witness. Could just be a Declaration.

Thanks for your response, I'm just getting started, and I don't have insurance on my gear. It has been suggested I may be able to file a claim against the property owners insurance.

Judge Judy and small claims! Your just lucky some other poor bastard has to live with her! Good luck! Jp

Yes, file a claim against her and, by the way, buy insurance! She has homeowner's coverage. Small claims limit in California is $10,000. What is the equipment worth? Put two claims in, one for the gun and the other for the pad.

Also, write down everything you remember and capture all pictures sooner instead of later.

See the attached. See below.

Good luck.

http://www.dca.ca.gov/publications/smal ... file.shtml

"$5,000 tripod" Curious, what was the make and model of that tripod Mr. P?

Typical reporter - probably forgot to mention the $4900 total station attached to the $100 tripod.

Yes, it was the entire piece of equipment. And yes, Warren, you are right! Reporters overlook these details. The incident occurred in 1974 BTW. The article was written in 1988!

Mike uses gold plated tripods. ;)

Wow, people are crazy.

I had a prism pole set up on a monument in a well get shoved over, it broke the prism. It was unattended, didn't see who did it. At least it wasn't that much money.

Yes! I bill the clients for the higher end equipment. ;) Contract provision, article 26(d)(3.2).

oooh ... war stories ...

I had an airplane take out one of my backsights (didn't see it happen).

I warned the tower to put out an immediate call to all aircraft that an incident had occurred and where. I didn't want to be remotely responsible for someone's loss of life if they weren't aware of damage to their aircraft.

Never fear, they tracked me down a couple weeks later and presented me with a bill to fly the aircraft out of state for non-airworthy-critical repairs. After fuel, loss of charter time, and parts & installation I think I remember looking at 6-7 large.

I had good traffic control, notes and photos, and an insurance company that stood up for me ... in the end the aircraft charter company got nothing and subsequently had to buy me a nice new set of legs, tribrach, and prism (probably around $700).

As a side note; I've also had a car insurance company of a person backing out of a driveway buy me new GPS antenna.

Running without insurance is a risk ... I'd only do that with a piece of equipment I could lose without a blink.

A fellow surveyor I know had a homeless guy push his instrument over when he didn't get any money after asking.
The surveyor called PD on a Citizen Arrest, but he had insurance. PD arrived and prosecuted the guy, but don't know if that would have help your case or not.

I too have had insurance companies buy me a new backsight setup after their client backed into the tripod with cones around it. I would simply go after their insurance company as she admitted she tried moving it and it fell, so she is still guilty no matter how much force she used to move.

I hate hearing this, but why did you not have insurance for your business venture? This is a good lesson to all new business operators.

Rich, I had an instrument (set 4) taken out by an airplane too! What are the chances of that? Mine was off to the side set up on concrete and the pilot revved up his engine (little prop job) while waiting for runway clearance. Blew the legs straight out and the instrument went straight down and bottomed out on the tripod hand bolt. Broke the electronic compensator, but we just turned it off and actually learned to get better elevations with it off than on???? Finished out the day. Still pissed at that chainman because the lazy ass had me drive him out to the first point to lay out so he didn't have to walk both ways causing me to break #1 rule at the time(don't leave the instrument un-attendant.) Jp

We once got a project at an airport due to this. Previous company had their T-2 smashed into the concrete taxi-way by jet wash. They called it quits after that.

We were on a closed taxi way and this 4 prop cargo plane made a u turn at the end and our tripod and prism were about 300 feet away but down it went. I don't think the company I worked for asked the Marines for any damages.

Catering truck driver took out our tripod and prism, center punched it. Took off like a bat out of hell then saw she was driving right to where we were. LOL

Woman in a Porsche backed out and took out my tripod and prism, she paid cash.

Man in a SUV took out a GPS unit, his insurance company paid.

Both of the latter 2 were going to drive on, but we stopped them.