HUNTER SUES TAXIDERMIST FOR NEW HUNT---REVISITED

the link is dead. can you tell us more? This really should scare every taxidermist to his shoe bottoms.

 

Hunter wins price of mount, less than sought
By GREG TUTTLE
Of The Gazette Staff

A state judge has ordered a Billings taxidermy business to pay $1,600 to a hunter for a botched mountain goat mount.

In an order filed Thursday, Judge Gregory Todd said All Mount Taxidermy owes the money to Michael Sartorie, who sued the company for negligence. But Todd rejected Sartorie's claim that All Mount owed him much more to compensate him for a hunt that took 35 years and thousands of dollars to attain.

"This court received no evidence concerning Sartorie's damages for pain and suffering, emotional distress, reasonable value of services that he could no longer perform, loss of established course of life or the reasonable value of purchases necessitated by his injury," Todd said in the order.

At a bench trial before Todd in March, Sartorie said it took him 35 years to receive a hunting license for one of the limited-draw Montana mountain goat tags. Before departing for the hunt in October 2005, Sartorie arranged to take his trophy to All Mount for a full-body mount. After the successful hunt, which he said cost him $4,275, Sartorie took the animal to the taxidermist and paid an $800 deposit to cover half of the taxidermy fee.

Sartorie waited a year for word of his mount and designed a special place in the living room of the house he was building to display the mounted goat. But when he eventually called All Mount to check on the goat, he learned that the business had been sold.

The new owner, Brad Johnson, said he sent the hide of Sartorie's goat to a tanning business in Texas, which either lost or damaged the hide. Johnson offered to replace the hide with one from a different goat, but Sartorie rejected the offer, saying he wanted a trophy mount of the goat he shot.

At the trial, Sartorie's lawyer argued that Johnson should be ordered to pay Sartorie about $9,500 for another goat hunt in Canada, where tags are easier to get, or to reimburse Sartorie the cost of his Montana hunt.

Todd said at trial that he had no authority to make a ruling against the Texas tanning company because it was not named in the lawsuit.


Published on Friday, June 19, 2009.

 

That's not as bad as it could have been. I would say that was a somewhat fair ruling. The guy already paid an $800 deposit so he only "won" $800 for his lawsuit.

Bruce

 

I hope it taught this dumass a lesson about researching a proper taxidermy studio.

 

What does the studio have to do with it IF the tannery lost or messed it up? Could've just as easily been lost or destroyed by the shipping company. The taxidemist needs to go after the tannery now IMO - it sounds like they were at fault, UNLESS the taxidermist just used the tannery as an excuse and he really messed it up instead, then that's a whole 'nother story.

 

I agree Becky. Jason you may be thinking this because 1600. for a lifesize mtn. goat mount is around 1/2 of what studios that do decent work charge in this area. All Mount can produce good work, or used to anyway. Overall, I am glad and relieved because it sounds as if the judge was reasonably fair to me given the info printed here.

 

Jim you hit the nail on the head. It seems to me the guy was willing to go broke to shoot a goat and was a price shopper when it came to his mount. I think we can all agree that there are a lot of idiots out there like that.

 

That's true but IMO that should mean he should get NADA for being a cheapass.

 

I agree, but remember this was a politically correct judgment. REMEMBER this is a "It's not my fault" society that we live in.

 

Yeah, I guess you're right - unfortunately. Judge probably got screwed over by a hack at some point in time.

 

More than likely you right.

 

The original owner should have contacted all clientel that the business was changing hands.

 

Every taxidermist should have some kind of umbrella insurance policy. This case sounds to be legit. If the taxidermist or his sub-contractor screwed-up then he should be held liable. We choose our subs and we do bear a responsibility. Sounds like the Shop dropped the ball while it changed hands.

On a related note, I don't understand why a taxidermist sends hides states away to be tanned. Montana has a couple good tanneries. I have a great tannery 40 minutes from me. I could never be in this business and send hides 1,000 miles away to be tanned in a huge operation that has higher chance of loss or damage. I am sure many disagree, but I am a control nut. I had one mule deer hide and one moose flat hide slip this year. In both cases my tanner called me to tell me about the problem, which I suspected with both. I was able to meet him at the tannery and decide for myself if the hides could be saved or not.

 

No hard feelings, but on your related note...what the hell is the difference if my tanner goofs up and is honest about it in my state, or another state? Lol, am I missing something here? Isnt out of state honesty the same?

I think theres alot of points of interest and sub plots to this story, and, all things considered, thats not really a bad outcome. Its a shame from the git-go, of course. Live and learn. Learn for sure, cuz theres also many lessons here...

 

I used to tan everything in my shop years ago and I lost a few skins and capes. My time is more valuable than to be doing my own tanning with the work load in taxidermy I have. A few years ago I drove all the way out to California to personally yank all my skins from a well known tannery that I used for over 20 years as they started ruining everything and drove over and delivered everything to Golden State tannery also in California the same day. I still use Golden state for all my foreign shipments tanning. I use Glacier Fur in Montana for most everything else. Once here in Cody a tannery opened shop and he did great work and seemed like a really hard worker and great person for about 6 months then he got off the wagon, and drank himself into committing suicide all in a very short time span. It was really sad; I send most all of my skins out of state because that's where I can get great service and excellent quality. That tannery should reimburse this taxidermist and the news paper should be told to correct their and clarify their stories or face a law suit. Taxidermists should CHARGE enough to be able to do good work and hire a lawyer if ever needed.

 

Bill- No hard feelings at all. Love your work and even the laughs. Unfortunately, when a long distance is associated with the equation you are just another number and get fed a line of BS. I have used out-of-state tanneries in the past. I stopped using them because in 3 different cases, with 3 well known tanneries, I had major problems. Buffalo with an ear missing, slippage, poor shaving, etc. Fortunately for me, there is an excellent tannery and a great tannery within shouting distance for me.

Here is another example. I get a deer brought to me that was preped by another taxidermist. I had a concern with the cape and the way it was salted. So I take it down to my tannery, ask them to run it special for me, then they call and say there is a problem. I go down, assess the cape, bring it home and hand flesh the rubber/saltless areas, take it back and they pound the pickle again. The cape turns out fine. I would be 99.9% certain that the cape would have been lost if my tannery was 2 states away. Of course, it was just a deer cape, but it meant a lot to my customer and I am just too dang onery to not do my best.

I understand that this isn't possible for everyone, but it is for me and I feel very fortunate. Do you want the best African Taxidermist doing your safari or do you want a great taxidermist within a couple hundred miles of you doing you safari? I'll take the guy a little closer, with whom I have met, and where I can visit if a problem arises.

James- Glacier is one of the good tanneries in Montana that I was referring to. That was my point. You guys have a good tannery closer to home, easy to deal with (most of the time) and this mountain goat hide gets sent to Texas, where the darned thing gets lost of destroyed. I agree with everything else you stated, especially the tanning your own hides philosophy. I would get out of commercial taxidermy if I had to tan my own capes or send them 1,000 miles away (foriegn shipments excluded). Tanning capes is like fingers on a chalk board to me.

 

Skife, glad to see you took me the right way. Yes, the fact you can drive out and assess things is a plus for sure. I have had the same good results and cooperation that you get with local tanneries, with my long distance ones too. Minus the driving in. I guess its depending more on what name is in the scenario. I still had to chuckle though...