In what could be a precedent-setting case, a Montreal-area racetrack operator is suing a local weatherman over an incorrect forecast.
Jacques Guertin, president of Projets Speciaux Sanair, which operates a racetrack southeast of Montreal, was in small-claims court in St-Hyacinthe this week seeking $6,540.84.
He claims independent meteorologist Michel Morissette, who runs the La Providence weather station and a free weather forecast hotline, predicted rain on two days last June. Guertin said he cancelled scheduled events for those days, which turned out to be nice.
The amount Guertin is seeking represents what he estimates are the profits he lost by calling off the events.
I’ll readily admit that there are plenty of things I don’t know about running a racetrack, but I don’t think any of them should make my opinion that this fellow seems like he might be a pretty crappy event planner any less sound.
For starters, who rains out events weeks or even days in advance? Even children’s baseball leagues don’t schedule doubleheaders on the 1st of the month because the 21st is supposed to suck. They wait until the day of and make the call then, sometimes with only moments to spare. Why? Because doing anything else would be bush league and stupid.
And speaking of stupid, who bases his entire business life on forecasts from just one source? I’m not sure what it’s like in Montreal, but here I can turn the stations on my radio and TV and find forecasts for the same area on the same day that are anywhere from 2 to 5 degrees apart and can’t agree on how much it might rain or even if it’s going to. Even the judge, who hasn’t handed down a ruling yet, was said to be at least somewhat skeptical of this plan.
I know we’ve all at some point wanted to stick it to our local useless goof weatherman who gets paid for this shit goddammit, but I think our pal Jacques here has even less of a chance of getting his $6,540.84 than his local useless goof weatherman does of getting the long-range forecast right. Hopefully he didn’t have to cancel any more events to make room for his court date.
