Contracts

When I bought my first lamb from a friend of mine, she gave me a receipt. Written on the receipt was the statement 'Sold as is with faults'. I knew the lamb was fine, but she said it was what she wrote on every receipt for every lamb she sold, for just in case something happened to the lamb she would hopefully be held faultless. A buyer-beware thing. At the time I thought it a bit odd. Now, I see the wisdom in that as I watch some friends battling a recent customer who bought a wether goat kid from them, and had no receipt/contract. I personally saw the goat kid hours before he was sold and he was fine. Three days later, the wether is dead and the customer wants his money back...plus all the vet costs. My friends were willing to give him at least half of the money back, and wanted the vet records released so they could know, from the vet, what went wrong with the kid that was healthy when it left their property. The customer has refused to release the vet records unless they pay back the price of the kid and all the vet costs FIRST. They refused, and now, the customer is slandering them on Craiglist and to anyone else who will listen, and sending less than friendly e-mails. Could all this have been prevented with a hold-harmless contract of some sort? Maybe, maybe not. But, I know from now on when any animal leaves my property, there will be a duplicate signed receipt that includes the statement 'Sold to..............as is, with faults.'