who's responsible?

[pianolover 88]

Inadvertantly forgot to replace customer's music desk in her Weber grand. 
I'd been there for about 3 1/2 hours doing a major "technical" cleaning, big 
pitch raise, tuning, and finally made a pattern for a custom string cover, 
which I sold during the visit. The customer had to leave just after I got 
started, but her housekeeper was there for the duration of my visit. Upon 
completion, I closed the lid and flyleaf and played a couple pieces on the 
piano, enjoying what I felt was  job well done. At just about this time I 
received a call on my cell. I told the caller that I would call her back in 
a few moments, then proceeded to pack my tools and move on to the next job.

As stated in the outset, I forgot to replace the music desk, (a first for 
me, but hardly the end of the world, right?) which I had placed out of 
eyeshot, under the tail section of the piano. While speaking on the phone 
several hours later to the customer from my home, informing her when her new 
string cover would be ready, I heard a loud crashing sound, which she told 
me, to her shock, was the music desk falling OUT OF THE PIANO, resulting in 
some case damage to the piano! She told me that the music desk appeared to 
have been "sitting just inside the piano under the top lid but apparently 
NOT installed properly". She said that when she tried to lifit the music 
desk UP it crashed to the ground, hitting the piano in a couple areas 
causing the damage.

Here is what MUST have happened: After I left, the housekeeper noticed the 
music desk was still on the floor, and attempted to put it inside the piano, 
but did not slide it onto the tracks! When the customer returned home that 
evening, she lifted the flyleaf back, then lifted the desk upward, and 
that's when the accident occured.

Yes, I left the desk out in my haste, But am I responsible for the 
Houskeeper's actions? My feeling is that if they would have called me FIRST, 
I would have made the short trip(less than 10 minutes) back to reinstall 
it---no harm done, case closed.

Any thought? Thanks all!

Terry Peterson