Some time ago, I wrote about a goat auction.¹

In summary:

a) a family had put a goat up for auction at the Shasta District Fair;
b) before the auction began, the 9-year-old child who had raised Cedar the goat could no longer bear the thought of Cedar being butchered;
c) Cedar was nevertheless auctioned off at the insistence of the auctioneers;
d) the family was willing to pay for any loss suffered, and the successful bidder said he "would not resist her efforts to save Cedar from slaughter". However, the auctioneers insisted on Cedar's return; and
e) Cedar was sent to a far-away farm for his safety, but representatives from the Sheriff's Department drove at least 500 miles across county lines to seize Cedar, who has since been killed.

Naturally,² the family sued.

--

More than 2 years later, we finally have a partial³ resolution.

Shasta County has agreed to pay the family to settle their claims against the county.

The winning auction bid, which the family was prepared to compensate, was USD 902.

The settlement sum?

USD 300k.⁴

And this doesn't even include the legal costs and management time that would have been expended over more than 2 years.

--

Takeaways, for those involved in a potential dispute.

Disagreements are a natural fact of life, and sometimes, we receive a demand that we do not agree with.

When faced with such a demand, we will have to make a judgment call as to whether it makes more practical sense to acquiescence or rebuff.

Sometimes, the response is to dig our heels in, and assume that the unhappy party is not going to engage legal representation to take things further.

And many times, this might well be the right play.⁵

But this is essentially a game of chicken - we're daring the other party to escalate matters, and are making a judgment call that they won't do so because they aren't prepared to pay the price.

And if we're going to play chicken...

...we need to be prepared for the consequences of losing.

Because sometimes, the other party chooses to maintain a collision course, and does commence a formal claim.⁶

At that point, the cost of acquiescence likely increases.

And we may eventually find ourselves, for example, facing a bill of more than USD 300k over a dispute apparently worth just USD 902.

So when faced with a claim, no matter how unjustified you think the claim may be...

...talk it through with your lawyers and advisors before responding, one way or another.

You may well avert a bigger problem down the road.