A whole lot of staff consider that they can’t be held personally accountable in the event that they make a mistake of their work that causes injury or damage to others, as their employer might be liable, and the employer’s insurance coverage will shield them.
Within the overwhelming majority of instances that is actually true, however you can not and mustn’t depend on this.
I present just a few examples:
Case #1
Within the first case, which I feel from reminiscence I’ve written about earlier than, a truck driver, whereas answerable for a B-double prime mover and trailers, modified lanes and hit a car travelling beside them. The opposite driver was discovered to not have contributed to the collision.
The problem for the driving force was that his employer was in monetary problem, and had did not renew the business motor insurance coverage on their fleet of autos, together with the one being pushed by the this explicit worker.
The corporate went into liquidation and was finally wound up. This left the driving force with none insurance coverage or capability to hunt restoration from the employer. In the long run, the insurer of the harmless third celebration sought restoration from the negligent driver and was profitable.
Case #2
20 odd years in the past, an worker was instructed to put in a stone statue outdoors a leisure membership. 20 years later, youngsters have been climbing on the statue and the statue fell over inflicting severe accidents to not less than one of many youngsters. The employer had closed his enterprise down a number of years earlier than the collapse of the statue, and with this the employer stopped paying for public and product legal responsibility insurance coverage round 4 years earlier than the accident.
The actual coverage was an prevalence wording which required the damage or injury to have occurred throughout the interval of insurance coverage.
It was discovered within the Court docket of Attraction that the statue was poorly constructed, and that had it been carried out appropriately, the statue must have stood for not less than 50 years with none upkeep.
Even with the membership being deemed by the court docket to have contributed to the accident, the worker was discovered to be personally accountable as nicely, with the award in opposition to the worker being in extra of $1,000,000.
Case #3
The third case is barely totally different. Safety guards have been requested to help with an issue at a neighbouring premises and it was discovered that they used extreme drive of their dealing with of the matter. The employer right here efficiently argued that the safety guards have been performing nicely outdoors the corporate guidelines and the coaching that they’d offered, and as such the employer was discovered to not be legally answerable for the accidents sustained to the particular person by the safety guards. Right here the guards have been held personally accountable however not like the sooner two instances, they’d no property and have been males of straw and so the injured celebration did not get well.
Take-away classes
On the finish of the day, each one among us are liable for our actions or inaction, and will be held personally accountable if our actions or inaction causes loss, injury or damage to others.
Buying run off protection for Public and Product Legal responsibility Insurance coverage is equally essential as it’s for Director’s and Officers Insurance coverage and Skilled Indemnity Insurance coverage.