Grass cutter loses flying-stone damage battle

The grass is not always greener on the other side – or so a grass cutter discovered when he was taken to task over a smashed window.

Two Jeffreys Bay businessmen – one the owner of a lawn-mowing service and the other a trader in second-hand vehicles – went head-to-head in the Humansdorp Small Claims Court, where one was ordered to pay the other.

The lawn-mowing service owner was dragged to the Small Claims Court last week when a Sea Place resident claimed a stone had hit the back passenger window of his 1998 Daihatsu Terios while his neighbour’s grass was being cut.

The 35-year-old man said he had approached the gardening service owner to discuss the incident, but was instead sworn at.

The semi-retired gardening service owner, meanwhile, said while he initially offered to pay the excess on the man’s insurance, with “very foul language” he had been told the man had no insurance and he needed to pay the total cost of the damage.

Both men asked not to be named.

“My insurance unfortunately did not cover this type of incident, but I would have to pay an excess amount. I did not see myself as responsible for the full cost,” the grass cutter said.

The Small Claims commissioner disagreed.

He ordered him to pay R500 a month until the total window cost of R4 500 was repaid.

Port Elizabeth lawyer Kuban Chetty, who was not involved in the case but commented in general, explained that in such an incident a degree of negligence needed to be proven in court.

He said the reasonable grass cutter would have foreseen the possibility that a stone would cause such damage to a vehicle parked in such close proximity.

Therefore, the liability was on the part of the grass cutter.

Chetty said this was why the owners of lawn services usually had insurance.