(PA) Surveillance Camera Question

(PA) Surveillance Camera Question

tioga0630@yahoo.com (tioga 0630)	8/18/2003 5:20:12 PM
This is related to another post on misc.legal.moderated regarding a major home improvement disaster. A ceiling collapse and flood due to a "minisculely"-pitched roof being shingled rather than covered with rubber led to my hooking up a video camera to record the collapse for potential insurance purposes. The drywall and latex paints formed "breasts" all over, which might have been kind of nice under other circumstances. I set up the camera on the breast that was simplest to focus on. Within an hour of doing it (going about my business on and off the videotape), the "contractor" arrived with his helper and exclaimed vociferous expletives upon seeing the ceiling and what was happening. I and my family are deciding how to proceed against him and his work (which includes every possible construction violation from the footer up). He doesn't have a pot to p-*s in, so we're considering small claims, where in PA you can ask for $8K. Our attorney and the state's AG's office have conflicting opinions on the admissability of the videotape. One says that since I was videotaping the ceiling collapse and the defendant happened to walk in to the frame, I'm fine, as long as I'm the one testifying about the videotape. The AG representative, who by his own admission said he never had experience with a surveillance case this ambiguous, said I might expect trouble for not having informed the "contractor" he was being videotaped, that by leading him into a place where I knew his image would be captured on the videotape, I owed it to him to decide whether or not he chose to appear on it. But I wasn't videotaping him. I was videotaping the "breast" so I'd have proof of when it collapsed. I'll destroy the tape entirely, though, if there's any chance what I did for homeowner's insurance purposes may be misinterpreted or misconstrued. I'd appreciate hearing from PA folks or anywhere case law has addressed this issue. I sure haven't been able to turn up anything on Findlaw or similar search engines. Thanks for posts rather than email.



Gerald Clough	8/20/2003 1:33:08 PM
tioga 0630 wrote: <snip> Our attorney and the state's AG's office have conflicting opinions on the admissability of the videotape. One says that since I was videotaping the ceiling collapse and the defendant happened to walk in to the frame, I'm fine, as long as I'm the one testifying about the videotape. The AG representative, who by his own admission said he never had experience with a surveillance case this ambiguous, said I might expect trouble for not having informed the "contractor" he was being videotaped, that by leading him into a place where I knew his image would be captured on the videotape, I owed it to him to decide whether or not he chose to appear on it. Lawyerly guesses are always on the most conservative side. Fake an injury for insurance or personal injury purposes and see how far it gets you to later object to the fact that they didn't tell you they were filming you climbing a ladder. -- Gerald Clough clough@texas.net "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."

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