Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with liability and resolved

Call the town now or wait for insurance?

dlugoczaj — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 07:41:09 -0800

During a windstorm, a tree fell on our detached garage last night and destroyed it (no cars were in it, but the roof is completely caved in and the walls are buckling). We live adjacent to a public high school, and the tree was/is on the school's property, not ours. I filed a claim with our homeowners insurance already and asked if I should call the town directly or if the insurance folks should do it. The call center person I spoke to recommended that I wait. The claims adjuster is supposed to call "before tomorrow evening." I'm feeling antsy. Should I just go ahead and call the town? Would I be letting myself in for any potential foul-ups in reimbursement (either from insurance or from the town)?

Home rental lease for 18 year old daughter?

kiwi-epitome — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 04:11:59 -0800

My 18 year old daughter is renting a "college rental" house with three other 18 year old females. I've just read her lease and I have a question about the portion I have to sign... Paragraph 1 states "this lease made between (Landlord's name) and (Daughter's name) who is hereinafter refereed to as "tenant" and Parents signing for students on signature page of this lease referred to as "tenant and/or Guarantor".

The rest of the lease is a normal lease agreement for what I've seen in my past (as a renter and a landlord) but my concern is by signing this as a "tenant" myself, am I opening up to more liability than I'd like to considering there are four young adults that I'd be potentially accepting responsibility for?

This signature page requires Daughters signature on "tenant/student" line and then mine next to it under "Guarantor for lease agreement. Parent or legal guardian for student."

This is in Maryland.

Again, my main concern is the part of the first paragraph stating I'd be a "tenant" (and I may be reading too much into that!) I'm happy to guarantee that her portion of the rent is paid, but do not want to be considered a tenant of the property OR to accept liability for the four young adults of the property.

Thanks for your insight!

YANML: Is a restaurant liable for an injury in the bathroom?

turtlefu — Sun, 06 May 2012 07:52:35 -0800

My daughter was in the bathroom stall and got her thumb pinched in the door when another patron open the door. Her thumb was cut and needed six stitches. ER visits are expensive, should the restaurant help cover the costs?

Am I liable if someone slips on my snow clearing job?

zadcat — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 20:04:08 -0800

If I clear snow badly, can I be liable for someone else's injury? I live in a ground-floor flat in Montreal. The front doors to flats in this area are individual, and my door opens on a front porch, from which there are 4 steps to a short front walk. Another door also opens on this porch from my next door neighbour's flat.

I rent and so does she. The landlady lives elsewhere. Snow clearance is not included in our leases; with my previous neighbour I used to share snow shovelling duties, but this young woman has refused to clear snow for two winters now, and has told me flat out she doesn't own a shovel, nor does she have any salt for when the steps become icy, which they occasionally do.

If we don't clear the steps the Canada Post letter carrier can refuse to deliver – they have a standard form they'll stick on your mailbox, to warn you – and neglected snow can freeze up and become a mess. So I'm stuck with clearing the snow if I want my mail, and want to be able to have food delivered or for myself or anyone else to use the steps safely.

But it occurred to me that if this continues, with my neighbour fully expecting me to cope with the steps, and I don't do it, or do it badly, and she falls and hurts herself, does she have a legal case against me? She is not disabled, by the way – she just can't be bothered.

One reason I ask is that I have a standard tenants' insurance package for fire and theft but that also includes some arcane stuff about liability for other people's injuries. I never understood how as a tenant I could be liable for such things, but if someone has come to expect that I will do the steps and, expecting this, gets injured, am I at risk?

Canadian and Quebec law may have its particularities, but I'd be interested to hear any views coming from general common law on this. And I know YANML.

Help me be a dogwalker and a speech therapist

shortyJBot — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:46:48 -0800

How does one get "licensed and bonded" for liability insurance with dogwalking/housesitting, and a bonus question about umbrella policies for a personal business Hello! I work as a speech therapist in the school setting, and I have 10 weeks off in the summer. I get a little restless if I don't have structure and bigger goals to work on, so I am considering a couple of projects on the side. I am looking for tips that I could implement starting this June, in regards paperwork/insurance/licensing and timelines.

A recent askme comment recommended that a potential dogsitter be "licensed and bonded." With regards to dogsitting, how does that happen? Where would I go for a license or policy? How much, in general, would it cost to cover a dogwalker's liability? Is there an agency, or is it through an insurance company?

I advertised for dogsitting in my old neighborhood with flyers, and I had some success...but I was leery of liability if someone accused me of stealing something, for example, or if something happened to their dog on my watch. I would like to advertise as a dogsitter in a nearby fancy neighborhood, but I would want to be licensed and bonded first, both for increasing my professionalism and for my liability/safety.

Aaaaand, I've started seeing a couple speech therapy clients outside of school. I have my ASHA certification and my license to practice speech in Virginia, so I'm set there, legally. But, is it possible for an umbrella policy/ "licensed and bonded" policy to cover BOTH speech therapy and dogsitting, or would I have to separate them? Since this is a part-time summer gig, I don't want to invest much in insurance/licenses.

Thanks for your help! I am in Richmond, VA.

What happens if the whole board resigns?

scrute — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 10:12:51 -0800

Asking for a friend: What happens to a charity (in Canada) if the entire board resigns on mass? Who is legally responsible for the organization until replacements are found? Does the CRA revoke their charitable license? A friend is part of a charitable organization in which most of the board has already resigned due to issues with the Executive Director, who makes questionable decisions and refuses to take responsibility for the outcomes. She has also been forced to admit that the ED (the only staff and the founder) essentially IS the organization. Given that the status quo is just not an option, she and her remaining colleagues have decided that they basically have three choices in moving forward:

1.) Fire the ED knowing the organization will collapse - they don't have adequate resources at this point to save it should they make that decision.
2) Voluntarily give up the organization's charitable status and walk away, leaving the ED to sort out the future as a non-charity. They know that this will be a time consuming process if done properly, but are considering it.
3) Resign en mass, leaving the charity as a charity, and let the ED figure out their own mess.

They are currently leaning towards the third option, but need to know whether they will remain legally liable until replacements are found, and how they would properly go about this knowing that they will need to notify the CRA themselves. If it will result in an automatic revocation of their charitable status, they might be more likely to consider option 2.

I know this is a pretty specific question, that yes, it never should have gotten this bad in the first place, and that YANML. American examples are also welcome, but it's the Canadian legal implications that she is most interested in.

House of horror

zenpop — Sun, 08 May 2011 12:39:08 -0800

What responsibility does a mortgage company have for the approval they granted to a builder (before paying the builder) on a house that is now an utter disaster? I took out a major 'construction loan' with my mortgage company. They did not give me the money but paid it out, bit by bit, to the contractor/builder -- during the remodel process -- twice a month. They would only make payments to the contractor after they did inspections to see that the contractor's work was legitimate and up to par.

Three years later the house is a complete disaster, with floors sinking, walls filling with water, roofing issues, etc. I want to stop paying the mortgage at this point.

What liability does the mortgage company have in this nightmare?

I'm curious to hear from anyone else who might have been in a similar situation. And yes I have an attorney, but I'd still like to hear some 'real life' experiences related to this. Thanks.

Limited Liability Company

gtothep — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:58:37 -0800

I want to drop one member, pick up a new member, and change the name of my limited liability company. Is that possible? My partner wants to look else where for opportunities to make money. I want to keep the LLC but change it's name and revise ownership.

How to safely remove monster icicle

Signed Sealed Delivered — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:23:34 -0800

Giant icicle mass on a wire and over a walkway: how do I get rid of it? I just realized there's a GIANT icicle clump hanging off of (what I assume are) electrical wires over our driveway. It's got to be six feet tall and two feet across.

I'm concerned that it will fall on someone and/or damage the wiring. It's in a low-traffic area and I can let the rest of the house know to avoid walking there, but I'd like to get it taken care of.

Should I call the electric company? A . . . tree service? Money is pretty much no object with this, but I don't even know where to start.

The building is a duplex built in about 1850, in greater Boston, Massachusetts.

Thank you in advance to anyone who has advice on what to do or who to call.

What is our liability for a fallen tree?

allelopath — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 15:43:02 -0800

What is our liability for a fallen tree? We've had a great windstorm today. It caused a a large part of a tree on our property to break off and fall onto the road, blocking both lanes. Before we started sawing up the tree, I took a photo of the tree across the road. We were out cleaning it up when a woman drove up and said she had driven by earlier and the tree had fallen on her car. The windshield of her car was broken and there were leaves of the same species of tree stuck in her car. She didn't seem injured. She asked if we would be willing to verify for her insurance company that the tree had indeed fallen. I can verify that the tree had indeed fallen, but I can't say that the tree had fallen on her car since I didn't see it happen. I said I would email her the photograph of the tree across the street.

What should I do here? What are we liable for? It is a mistake verify the fallen tree for her insurance company? To send her the photo?

What are the legal implications of a liability release?

Kskomsvold — Thu, 06 May 2010 07:18:11 -0800

What are the legal implications of a liability release? Specifically, my daughter will be attending a park summer camp as she has for the last few years. One thing that has always stuck in my craw is the liability language in the release form; specifically the bolded: I hereby give permission for my child to participant in park activities, including swimming and field trips. I fully assume all responsibility for injuries she/he or I may receive or articles lost while participating in these activities or while in travel to or from said activities and field trips, and hereby release the Chicago Park District and its employees from liability for any injury I or my child(ren) may sustain.I have received, read, and understand the “Program Information Sheets for Parents” (for Summer Camp and PARK kids only) and agree to abide by the policies stated therein. I understand that this form will be due the first day of class or my child will not be enrolled. I have read and agreed to all the information contained in the above Parental Agreement and have filled out emergency information on my child(ren).

To my way of thinking, they ARE responsible for my daughter while she is in their care. Screw this boilerplate crap. Do I risk not having her accepted to the camp by redacting the liability stuff or should I just suck it up and sue the shit out of them if, god forbid, something did happen? How legally binding is something like this?

Any stories, anecdotes, etc., welcome.

Liability Insurance?

haplesschild — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:37:31 -0800

My wedding reception site just emailed me requesting very specific liability insurance. Help! My wedding reception site just emailed me requesting liability insurance. I saw this post from 2007, but I wanted to post the requirements I was given, because they seem to want more than the previous poster was asking for:

Minimum Insurance Requirements Include:

a. Comprehensive General Liability - Bodily injury and property damage, contractual liability coverage for indemnity provided under this contract and products/completed operations liability;

b. Alcohol/Liquor Liability Coverage (only if the entity, group or organization providing the alcohol is in the business of distributing, selling, serving or furnishing alcoholic beverages) - To insure against liability arising from the furnishing of alcoholic beverages to an individual that is under the legal drinking age or under the influence of alcohol; or violating any statute, ordinance or regulation relating to the sale, gift, distribution or use of alcoholic beverages;

c. Motor Vehicle Liability - Vehicle liability covering owned, non-owned and/or hired vehicles;

d. Motor Vehicle Including Pollution Coverage (only if transportation, loading or unloading any commodity that may cause environmental damage) - To insure against environmental damage arising out of the use by or on behalf of the person requesting the permit, its agents and employees or owned, non-owned, or hired vehicles;

e. Minimum Insurance Limits -
• Property Damage for each Accident or Occurrence - $50,000
• Each Person - $100,000
• Each Incident or Occurrence - $500,000
(These are minimums. If higher risk activities are present or heavy equipment is used, the minimums will be higher based on probable exposures.)

f. Additional Insured - The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and Friends of Vista House and its commission, members, officers, agents, and employees are to be named as additional insureds. There shall be 30 days written notice if any insurance changes occur including cancellation, potential exhaustion of limits, or intent of non-renewal. Failure to comply with the reporting provision, except for the exhaustion of aggregate limits, shall not affect the coverage(s) provided to OPRD or FOVH, its commission, members, officers, agents and employees;

g. Certificate of Insurance - As evidence of the insurance coverage, a certificate of insurance(s) shall be provided prior to the event. The certificate(s) must specify all parties who are additional insureds. Failure to provide such certificate may result in the event being cancelled and any deposit received being retained.

This is a wedding, not reception. No booze being served. I will call my condo's insurance next week, but I was hoping for personal recommendations, or someone to explain what I need to be looking for in a policy. They want a lot of things, and most sites I got when looking for "event liability insurance" didn't seem to cover this extensive list. Help!

Public Liability Insurance

ninazer0 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:46:57 -0800

I need public liability insurance for a 1 day stall at a country church fete. Is there any Australian insurer who does this? The shortest term I can find is 3 months at $110 via AAMI. I have been given the run around all day and I'm at the end of my tether. All that I seem to have done today is write complaint letters about being given wrong info.

Any suggestions? $110 to run a jam stall at a tiny Church Fete seems utterly ridiculous. What are they going to do? Put an eye out with an exceptionally sharp marmalade?

Any suggestions? Because at this rate I'm ready to throw in the towel.

Selling a bike: can I safely allow people to test-ride it?

fermata — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 16:01:50 -0800

Selling a bike: can I safely allow people to test-ride it? (I could have sworn I've seen this question covered, but I couldn't find it.)

I'm planning to sell a bicycle, and potential buyers may want to take it for a spin. I assume I can protect myself by holding their driver's license or something, but do I have to worry about liability issues? Is it safe for me to allow them to take test rides?

I Wanna Be Protected!

fourcheesemac — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 09:52:15 -0800

Can one buy a personal auto liability policy for rental cars that replaces or supplements LDW or liability supplement coverage offered by the rental agency? I travel constantly, and rent cars 20+ times per year as a result. However, I live in New York City and do not own a car, and hence possess no personal auto policy. Prior to moving here, I owned cars and trucks for 15 years, and have an extensive and good driving record across multiple states. I am, of course, licensed to drive in New York.

My credit card (Visa) covers the collision damage liability for the rental car itself as primary insurance in this situation, so I typically decline the CDW. In any case, it wouldn't break me to pay cash to replace the economy or compact cars I usually rent. So to be clear, this is not a question about coverage for damage to the rental vehicle itself. As far as I know, credit cards do not offer liability coverage at all (and many people are misinformed about this, in my experience, including some rental agents).

In some states in which I rent, the rental agency claims not to carry any liability insurance (in Indiana, Alamo and National have told me they are exempt from state minimums and that, in essence, a renter is required to either possess an auto liability policy or buy their liability supplement). In other cases, even where there is some liability coverage (ie, for damage done to other people and property in a hypothetical accident in which I was at fault), it's pathetically low given the risks one takes by pulling out of the airport parking area. So I usually buy whatever additional liability coverage is offered by the agency (still not great -- usually a 100K-200K overall limit). Tends to run 12-15 bucks per rental day. Usually you have to persist in asking for the liability coverage alone, and not as part of a package with the CDW and veterinary coverage for the family pet and every other little ripoff option.

I would like to buy my own policy that would simply cover me in any rental car in the US to the tune of half a million to a million bucks. Does such a policy exist? I've heard about general personal liability policies, but that seems like overkill to me.

I am having a devil of a time searching for this on the net because any combination of keywords pulls up endless bitching about the CDW/LDW policies of the various rental agencies.

Even when I travel on business and supp. insurance is covered by my employer, I'd love to have a personal policy for increased protection. Like I said, it's pretty easy to imagine doing 100K worth of hurt backing into someone's outside wall, for crying out loud.

Seems like an obvious product for business travelers, no?

Rental Car Accident filter

spacefire — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:43:10 -0800

Hertz fender bender, do I need to file police report, and am I covered? I backing up out of my parents driveway, I hit my mom's car with the rear of my Hertz rental car. Dents and scratches , but no other damage. I have Liability Insurance supplement but no Loss Damage Waiver as that should be taken care of by Visa since I rented using my Visa card. Should we file a police report?

Another question, related: The liability protection states, quote:
Within the limits stated in this subparagraph, hertz will indemnify, hold harmless....which by definition EXCLUDES ANY OF YOUR OR ANY AUTHORIZED OPERATOR'S FAMILY MEMBERS...RESIDING WITH YOU OR THEM..."
I don't live with my parents, I was just visiting, will the liability thing cover the damage to my mother's car?

Writing a liability release for a biking accident?

i less than three nsima — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:16:47 -0800

Legal filter - I hit a car head-on while biking the other day. It was my fault, and I’ve agreed to pay the damages to car. I need help writing up a release of liability contract so this guy doesn’t keep coming back for more. Here’s what happened... I was biking to work on Tuesday, and came to an intersection with a long line of cars waiting for the light to change. I decided to try passing the cars, using the oncoming lane of traffic, which was empty of cars at the time. There was a big truck at the head of the line, blocking my view, and a car turned into my lane quickly and we hit head on. Fortunately, my bike took the brunt of the impact, taco-ing out the front wheel and destroying the fork. I walked away with a pretty badly bruised shin, some smaller bruises, and nothing more. The car was also damaged - the front assembly and grill was shattered on impact. An ambulance was reflexively called by the driver, but by the time they came, it was clear to me that I did not need their help, so I signed a waiver that said I was OK. The EMTs asked the driver to sign a waiver as well, which he refused to do, which started to put me on guard that this guy was a little shady.

From the beginning, I knew that this was on me - I did a stupid, illegal maneuver with my bike, and I was prepared to pay for the damages I made to this guy’s car. We agreed that he would take his car in to the shop, and then he would work with the shop to get the estimate to me and then I would pay for the damages. At the critical moment of exchanging information at the scene, I gave him my name, address, and phone number, but he only gave me a nickname and his cell phone number, strike two for my suspicions of shadiness. He also seemed very interested in leaving the scene of the accident before the cops came - I didn’t want to have to deal with that either, because at the time I feared I might be charged with something for my reckless biking, but in retrospect this makes me more worried.

The estimate is now in, and the car will be fixed by Tuesday. My plan is to meet the man at the shop and pay the shop directly for the work. I would like to have him and I sign something together saying that we are both satisfied with the situation, that neither of us owes the other anything, and that the matter can be considered closed. I have no intentions of suing the man, but I also want to ensure that this is my last responsibility to him. I don’t want him coming to me 2 months down the road saying his engine is knocking and that I have to pay to replace it.

I would like advice on what I should write in order to make this document legally binding and to cover all my bases. Also, if you all have any advice on how I can present this to him so as not to freak him out too much, as I already know he is reluctant to give out his name, that would be great too.

A few addendum, for the inevitable comments:
1) I know my handling of this has not been the best, but for better or worse, I am in the situation that I’m in now, and I just want it to be over and not have to worry about it any more.

2) I know you are not a lawyer or if you are, you are not my lawyer. I also know that I should probably be doing this with a lawyer, but this whole thing has already cost me quite a lot, and if I can manage to write up something that is legal enough on my own, it would save me that much more trouble.

Event Liability Insurance Recommendations

curse — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:08:48 -0800

Wedding liability insurance. We're hosting a ceremony at a local school, and they require liability insurance for the day of the event at $100K. When I look online, it seems like some insurance companies will offer a one day policy option add-on for around $50 -- unfortunately my insurance company (Allstate) doesn't seem to offer that option. I've seen companies like Wedsafe mentioned tangentially in other questions, and it looks like their offering is $1,000,000 in coverage for about $195. There seems to be a ton of people offering this kind of insurance online, though, so I was wondering if anyone has had experience working with one of these companies, and if there might be a better deal out there, perhaps customized to the actual liability amount I need.