As clear as mud

Clear as mud: Scott Tennyenhuis and son Bradley are lamenting that the fear of a potential lawsuit killed the plans of the South Gippsland 4WD Club to host an open day.

By Matt Dunn

FOR the South Gippsland 4WD Club the day was meant to be one to show the public the glory of exploring the great outdoors.
But the fear of being sued means they no longer have access to the Tarwin farm where the event was to be hosted. A nervous farmer knew well enough that an injury to anyone visiting the club’s open day, to be held on Sunday October 18, could leave him open to litigation.
After initially being told by 4WD Victoria – the peak 4WD body – that the event would be covered under the club’s affiliation, the message changed.
“We had approval saying we would get insurance, then when I rang up later, we were told, no, they can’t write a cover note,” club secretary Kathy Campbell said.
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. I think if we had known about all the burdens of insurance right from the word go, we wouldn’t have decided to hold an open day.
“When you read the fine line in insurance policies, you wouldn’t do half the things people do. When you look at the fine print, you wonder, are you covered or are you not?”
As with most insurance policies, the devil is in the detail.
An email to the club from Affinity Insurance advised:
Typically we would note property owners as an “Interested Party” under our Public Liability policy. This affords the property owner limited protection if they are brought into an action where personal injury/property damage has been suffered by a third party solely as a result of the alleged negligence of Four Wheel Drive Vic. If the injury/property damage occurred as a result of the Property Owner’s negligence, they would need to rely on their own policy.
Wombat holes, tripping hazards and anything else that could potentially cause injury are all potential triggers for litigation.
Affinity Insurance’s director of corporate lines Tony Webster, said that if an insurance claim from a member of the public was made and there was “no negligence” on behalf of the 4WD club, “then the negligence will rest with the land owner”.
“For example, say the general public park cars next to a hay shed while attending the event and during the day strong winds pick up some roofing iron from the shed and hit the cars, then in this instance the land owner would be deemed responsible and not the local 4WD club,” he said.
“In this instance a claim would need to be made against the land owner’s insurance policy.”
It was suggested the club should charge people a gate fee of around $10 to cover insurance costs, effectively making them members of the club for the day.
However, no one could seem to tell them exactly how much the insurance cost would be.
The club believes it was a fee that would likely dissuade people from coming along.
Club president Scott Tennyenhuis said the open day was for “ordinary people to come and see what we do”.
Mr Tennyenhuis stressed that the South Gippsland 4WD Club is one for families, not yahoos.
“We really want to increase our membership and show ourselves off a bit. Of course, that wasn’t going to work,” he said.
The day’s events were innocuous ones, with a 4WDriving demonstration on a track far away from potential harm to the public, campfire cooking demonstrations and the like.
“They couldn’t really tell us how much the day was going to cost if we took out the insurance, but I thought charging people $10, as they suggested, was a bit much,” he said.
“The irony is, public liability insurance doesn’t cover me if I invite you to my house and you’re injured, but if you break in and hurt yourself the property owner is covered.
“It’s all a little bit stupid really. Altogether, it’s a bit ordinary.”

Short URL: http://www.thestar.com.au/?p=88

Posted by Chris Brown on Oct 6 2009. Filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry