Russo Steele Tent Collapse

[Xplantdad]

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[Xplantdad]

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[Lino]

The auctioneer / announcer across town at RM auctions took a moment to inform those attending about the mishap and GENUINELY expressed concern to the workers collectors and vintage cars involved in the disaster. Very well handled by the chaps at RM.

[PeteLeathersac]

As others have commented, it's truly great everyone's OK!.
That said, looking at the pictures the devastation is very serious and my heart goes out to Drew also Jacquie and anyone else w/ cars involved...especially those w/ survivor cars!.

Devastation pics...
https://sites.google.com/a/allclassi...steele-damages


~ Pete

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I like real cars best...especially the REAL real ones!

[tirebird]

Well, first of all, I'm not a lawyer or clairvoyant but this mess is just beginning. The storm is "an act of god", so that provides legal protection to the auctioneer. Secondly, I've never sold a car at auction so I'm not sure of the "boilerplate" in the sellers contract protecting the auction house from claims of this type of damage. Thirdly, if some owners were foolish enough to "go bare" and have an expensive car at this event without insurance(if that's possible), then they're going to be hunting for someone else to make them whole for their foolish decision. Fourthly, even if the owners have insurance to cover the damage, it doesn't mean that the insurance companies themselves won't be hunting for someone else to reimburse them for damages. I'm not familiar with Arizona law, but "negligence" is a legal term that has broad meaning. Did the auction house look at weather forecasts? Did the auction house take reasonable steps to protect the cars in light of this storm? Was the tent structure designed to withstand what type of wind event? Had this type of storm ever hit Scottsdale before and if so, did the auctioneer know about that possibility? I'm not blaming anyone here or saying R&S are responsible, but when you have high dollar damage to many high dollar owner, the legal system starts to heat up. Now, maybe R&S have their own insurance to cover this type of event and everything will be paid in quiet settlement conferences. Maybe it won't have to because it doesn't have any legal responsibility for this damage. Even with that possibility, everyone loses from this terrible event. R&S loses money with reduced sales. The owners, of damaged cars, have to deal with diminished value. The buyers don't get a chance to bid on a pristine undamaged great car.

[al8apex]

We have not had a tornado in ages, they are EXTREMELY rare, although they DID confirm it touching down just 2 miles to the west that night

a weather situation like that is NOT even thinkable at that time of the year ... summer monsoons, yes, winter tornado, no

[Stefano]

We had SIX cars there. Three were damaged to varying degrees.

The Fire Marshals and Police were on hand BEFORE the tents went down.

There were no major indicators of what was going to happen, just hours before the tents went down. We had just sold a car approx. 1/2 hour before the mass evacuation.

Sure, you can plan for an unforeseeable event AFTER it happens.

You can't just take 640 or so collector cars and several thousand spectator/bidder vehicles and just tell everyone to evacuate their cars and expect that no one would get hurt.

The authorities along with Russo & Steele placed the safety of the people who were there over and above that of any specific vehicle(s).

The fact there were NO life threatening injuries is a Miracle.

Drew and his staff did the best they could under the circumstances and I for one applaud them for how they handled this catastrophic situation.