Klarinet Archive - Posting 000702.txt from 2001/09

From: Bilwright@-----.net (William Wright)
Subj: [kl] Entertainment law (was Cage 4'33")
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 19:16:51 -0400

<><> Tony=A0Wakefield wrote:
wasn`t this a case of a breach of the trade descriptions act? A breach
of contract? And in the world of business, would Cage not have been
hauled up into the county court for this?

Unfortunately I've had some first-hand experience in this. Of course
the laws may be different in England than they are in the U.S., but
here's what happened in my case:

I bought tickets for a major Las Vegas show in a major Las Vegas Hotel.
I'm not going to mention the name, but everyone on this list would
recognize the name if I posted it. The show has been running in the
same hotel for 10-15 years now, and early versions for probably 10 years
before that.

To get a better table in a Las Vegas showroom, you must give a gratuity
to the maitre'd. I understand that some Las Vegas showrooms claim to
have abandoned this practice nowadays, but there was no way that a
person could have a good seat without a gratuity when this happened to
me.

My budget was limited and my gratuity was perforce minimal, and I and my
wife and two of my daughters received a table where none of us could see
the stage. I went back to the maitre'd and argued and got nowhere.
The fellow frowned and booked at his reservation list and told me that
this was the most popular show in town and nothing else was available.

I asked for my money back (it was $50/seat just for the tickets), and I
was turned down. I was considering my options when the table next to
us took mercy on us. By trading seats with taller people at the next
table, my wife and daughters were able to see about 50% of the stage
(but not all of it). Being the loyal father, I resigned myself to
listening to the music without seeing the show.

When I returned back home, I was angry enough that I wrote to the
District Attorney of Las Vegas, Nevada. I requested the forms to file
a small claims lawsuit (in the U.S., an attorney and jury are not
required if the amount is small). Eventually I received a polite but
firm reply from the D.A.'s office saying that 'entertainment law' does
not include a guarantee of quality --- no guarantee of performance
quality, nor of stage visibility, nor of adequacy of sound or lighting
equipment, nor even of a chair to sit in. "Sorry, but so long as you
were allowed into the showroom and so long as a performance of some sort
was given, and so long as fire safety laws were not violated, you have
not been defrauded".

Art and entertainment are simply too nebulous and to difficult to
define.

The hotel was notified of my complaint and contacted by the D.A.'s
office. As a result, the hotel offered me (included with the D.A.'s
reply) a second set of tickets if I wanted to return with my family to
Las Vegas to see the show again. But a second trip wasn't practical at
the time (the hotel did not offer air fare or free hotel room, just the
show tickets). As they say, Caveat Emptor.

Cheers,
Bill (who has never returned to that hotel, of course, even though
I could afford it now)

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