[SEL] Oz Liability Insurance

[Steven N Kitto]

I have been following this thread on NHMA and insurance and fences. I think
there is a lot of misunderstanding about the whole matter.

On the house where I live I am required to have liability insurance.
(A$20000000). It is my responsibility to provide a safe situation and thus
limit the potential for any claim. ie if I leave a water hose across the
pathway too my door and somebody is injured on it, then a claim is made
against me, and in turn the Insurance company.

Our Church Building, which is classified as a public building is the same.
The onus is on the management to ensure that we have a safe place. This is
also required under Occupational HEalth and safety. One catch is that if we
knowingly allow a situation to exist that has the potential to cause injury,
then the liability can pass to the individaul members of that body, in this
case all church members.

In South Australia, many organisations are incorporated. This takes the
liability away from individual members unless they knowingly allow an
unsafe, illegal, etc practice to continue. All members then become liable
for the loss. Whilst the organisation may have liability insurance, it is
possible for the members of the organisation to be sued for the loss.

Our requirements are to be as diligent as possible to present as safe
asituation as possible. It comes under, as someone has mentioned, Duty of
Care, which is part of our common law.

I want to comment on the NHMA situation. Our club is affiliated with NHMA
and we use their insurance, and we we exhibit as a club, or at a rally which
the host club is using NHMA insurance, then we are obliged to follow their
guidelines under which the insurance has been offered.

This weekend our local town is holding a Coutry Fair. I can take my engines,
if I choose and exhibit them on my own. My household liabilty insurance will
cover my, I don't have to have a fence, peice of rope or a scratch in the
dirt, but I must provide through a duty of care an environment that will
minimise the potential risk of injury. And the easiest way to do that is to
fence it off. Might as well go to the club sight, and talk with the rest.

I'll stop talking now.

Steve and Denise Kitto
4 Fifth Ave
Naracoorte
South Australia
Ph 08 87621147

As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man.
Proverbs 27:19