At least where I live negligence is a thing but this may vary wildly. If no reasonable person would expect you to do it that way then you can claim negligence, YMMV how much you get out of it. The problem usually is that you have to either go after the business which goes belly up as soon as you try and you still get nothing or after the owners money and claim irresponsible management which is far harder to do (and has a criminal code part).