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17 Herbert Place Dublin 2 Ireland
Tel: (01) 639 5800 Fax: (01) 639 5850
Email: info@odon.com Web:
www.odon.com
O’Driscoll O’Neil
Insurance Brokers
• Billiards
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lawn and ten pin)
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Irish Dancing)
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• Hockey
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• Running
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• Soccer (Individual)
Protection to all clubs, leagues and players.
Comprehensive cover for all amateur clubs and leagues
safeguarding the players, members, voluntary workers and
committees against legal action taken against them or their club.
Sports insurance produced
in association with:
Specialising in the following sports (and more):
Contact Us today for a quote:
Lastly, because indemnity and hold harmless agreements
require the contracting party to have financial means,
municipalities have resorted to requiring the use to maintain
liability insurance in their favour. CGL policies provide broad
coverage for claims made against facility users and owners
for bodily injury or damage to property of others which
result from the user’s operations or activities.
An example of the interpretation of an insurance clause
in the sporting context is found in Cowichan Valley School
District No 79. v Lloyd’s Underwriters
5
. The District
rented out its baseball field to a club for a tournament
and required the club to take out liability insurance as a
term of use. The District was listed as an additional insured
for liability arising out of the operations of the field during
the tournament. However, when one of the participants
was injured playing baseball, the club’s insurer refused to
defend the District, arguing that the injury resulted from
the District’s failure to maintain the baseball field, and
that the obligation to maintain the field arose out of their
status as the occupier and not from the operations of the
club. The court concluded that the cause of the injury
was connected to both the operations of the club and the
District in inspecting and maintaining the field. The District
was therefore afforded a defence.
It is likely that the trend of requiring sports leagues to
maintain liability insurance in favour of municipalities will
continue to increase. In fact, there is a growing trend in
Canada to enter into User Insurance Programs (“UIP”),
which provide the most protection from liability. A UIP
provides access to a previously negotiated insurance
program that contains exclusive coverage for municipalities.
Many cities across Canada have made this a term of any
facility rental contract in an attempt to limit exposure to
liability. Whether or not one enters into a UIP, indemnity
agreement or signs a waiver, it is imperative that the
contract is understood fully and in many circumstances
it is prudent to obtain independent legal advice prior to
entering into any agreement.
Graeme Mew (
gmew@npm.ca
) and Morgan Martin
(
mmartin@npm.ca
) are lawyers with Nicholl Paskell-Mede
LLP in Toronto.
1 L’Estrange v F Graucaub Ltd., [1934] 2 K.B. 394 (C.A.).
2 Tilden Rent-A-Car v Clendenning, (1978) 83 D.L.R. (3d) 400 (C.A.).
3 Dube v Labear, [1986] 1 S.C.R. 649 and Crocker v Sundance, [1988] 1
S.C.R. 1186.
4 Karroll v Silver Star Mountain Resorts, [1988] B.C.J. No. 2266 (S.C.)
5 [2003] B.C.J. No. 1964 (S.C.).
Through Legal Eyes
19