My husband had started a small business putting in irrigation wells and was contacted by a lady that wanted a 4 inch well. She insisted on a submersible pump that was two horse power. My husband was very honest with her and told her he had never put in this type of well but she still wanted him to do the work. There were complications with the well. Oour drilling equipment was not heavy duty enough to go down the depth she needed fro the size pump she wanted. After he told her that he could not complete the job she said she was going to sue him. She did pay 2200 dollars for the well and pump. My husband told her that he could get her a smaller pump but she insisted on that pump. We did not have a contract with her and she has received back 900 dollars for the price of the pump since she repeatedl called threatening to have him arrested for the pump she said she wanted him to take and return or sell to get her money back. She has called and said now she will sue for loss of property because she did not have water for her sprinkler system. She has city water. We live in Alabama how can I find out the law that may apply to this.

Of course he should have insurance to cover this sort of thing??

But if he did not know how to do the job, if he needed to rent the proper well digging equipment, if he needed to tell her he could not do it this way, all of this was things he should have done, now he needs to give her all herr money back if he can not do the job.

Did you discuss what the payment terms would be if there was a problem and you could not complete the job? If this was due to unusual circumstances (you say your equipment could not drill this deep, was the soil too rocky?) or did you just overestimate what you could do?

Without a contract you might want to have a consulation with a lawyer.