It would depend on who was asking. A close relative I would just show up at their door to retrieve it.
I think twice before I loan something expensive these days. I loaned a good friend my gingher scissors. She was complaining about her carpal tunnel and that she had promised to make drapes for the church and her scissors were not up to the task. She returned them but they were permanently damaged. I don't know how she could damage them on drapery fabric when I had used them to make jean quilts with no problem.
A special Aunt of mine used to say "Don't ever loan something you can't do without and be grateful when it's returned." I have never sued anyone. But it is weird, whenever my kids damaged anything at someones house, we always paid for repairs or replacement. But, it seems whenever anyone kids did something at our house we would be lucky to get an apology. Go figure.