The Dead Parrot
Kvetch:
"Sale of defective parrot leads to B.C. lawsuit
There's legal precedent, and then there's Monty Python.
The two overlapped this week when a British Columbia small claims court sided with a Salt Spring Island resident who sued another man for allegedly selling him a defective parrot.
An Eclectus parrot. (Not dead).
According to the
Civil Resolution Tribunal decision, Michael Davy said he noticed the parrot — Tiberius — was missing a few tail feathers when he bought it but was told the bird was only "molting and had clipped wings but was otherwise healthy."
But to paraphrase one of the
British comedy troupe's most beloved sketches, in which an irate customer confronts a shopkeeper who sold him a dead parrot — the plumage didn't enter into it.
Tiberius should have had a life expectancy of up to 40 years. Davy soon learned he had a fatal disease and — in fact — faced the prospect of becoming an ex-parrot in a just a fraction of that time.
"I find that there was an implied warranty in the parties' contract that Tiberius would be healthy for at least six months," wrote tribunal member Julie Gibson. "Instead, Tiberius became very ill within weeks of the applicant's purchase."
And he wasn't just pining for the fjords.
A veterinarian diagnosed Tiberius with psittacine beak and feather disease (PBFD), "an extremely contagious and lethal virus" that is usually contracted "from a contaminated environment or directly from an infected bird."
Even with medication he had between "weeks and several years to live."
Davy paid Akhtar Kidwai $2,100 for Tiberius.
Gibson did find that B.C.'s Sale of Goods Act applied to the parrot's purchase. The law carries an "implied warranty" that a "good will be durable for a reasonable period having regard to the use to which it would normally be put and to all the surrounding circumstances."
Given the life expectancy of the average Eclectus parrot, Gibson said Davy had every right to expect Tiberius to be healthy for at least six months after buying the bird.
She found that Davy had received some "benefit" from owning Tiberius — awarding him 75 per cent of the purchase price as a refund.
Gibson also ordered Kidwai to pay Davy's veterinary bills, bringing the total award to just under $1,900.
The judgment does not specify the current state of Tiberius's health.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/parrot-lawsuit-civil-dispute-1.5544536
"There is no word on whether the Pet Shop owner ripped off his jacket, exposing a flannel shirt and sang about how his life’s goal was to be a lumberjack who “
cut down trees. I wear high heels, suspenders, and a bra.” And wishes, “
I’d been a girlie, Just like my dear Papa." "
https://lidblog.com/monty-python-dead-parrot/
maximus otter