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AGENTS & BROKERS ONLY |
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Other Sports & Recreation Insurance Programs |
Premises Medical Payments For Sports OrganizationsPremises Medical Payments (AKA Medical Expense) can be an important coverage for sports organizations to have on their General Liability policy. Normally, a General Liability policy does not respond unless there is a threat of a lawsuit; however, Premises Medical Payments allows the carrier’s claims department to respond and pay benefits without a threat of a lawsuit.
The purpose of Premises Medical Payments is to appease the injured party by quickly offering to pay their medical bills in an effort to convince them not to hire an attorney.
The normal policy limit for Premise Medical Payments is $5,000. In the event that damages exceed $5,000, the fallback position is to revert back to the Each Occurrence limit for bodily injury liability.
Premises Medical Payments is typically used for minor spectator injury claims. Most policy forms exclude Premises Medical Payment coverage for athletic activities which are defined as practicing, instructing, or participating in any physical exercises or games, sports, or athletic contests. However, this exclusion is not a problem since athletic activities should be covered by an Excess Accident policy.
Source: John Sadler
Copyright 2004-2009 Sadler & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Personal And Advertising Injury Exposures For Sports OrganizationsSports organizations such as teams, leagues, and recreation departments have definite personal and advertising injury exposures which should be covered under a General Liability policy.
Personal injury is defined as a certain types of slander, libel, invasion of privacy, and false imprisonment. A typical personal injury example in the sports context occurs when a slanderous statement is made about a coach, umpire, or parent arising out of the heat of competition.
Advertising injury is defined as certain misleading statements or infringement of intellectual property rights in advertisements. An example in the sports context would occur when a sport organization makes a misleading statement about a competing sports organization in its advertising materials in the recruitment of player registrations.
Source: John Sadler
Copyright 2004-2009 Sadler & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Report: Recession Impacts Youth Baseball ParticipationA recent news release by ABC News indicates that many youth baseball leagues are reporting smaller registrations as the recession impacts family spending. In addition, it is reported that team sponsors are becoming more difficult to recruit and league concession sales are on the decline.
Some leagues have responded by lowering registration fees and providing scholarships. Others are asking sponsors to contribute less in order to sponsor a team.
Do these anecdotal stories reflect isolated pockets or do they reflect a national trend?
Steve Keener, President and CEO of Little League, indicated that national registrations are in line with past years but that the trend will need to be watched closely.
Could it be that fundraising will become popular again? In past years, fundraising was on the decline as many parents preferred raising the registration fees in lieu of fundraising.
MA Sports Non Profit Immunity Law Results in Lawsuit DismissalThe highest court in Massachusetts upheld a lower court decision that dismissed a lawsuit against a non profit sports organization due to a state immunity statute.
This lawsuit involved the 1998 tipping over of a soccer goal and resulting leg injury to a 12 year old boy. The boy sued the local association which was a member of the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association. The allegation was negligence on the part of the association for failure to properly secure the goal.
Even though the immunity statute was ultimately upheld in this case, the litigation dragged on for over ten years and undoubtedly very expensive. This is why sports organizations can’t rely on immunity statutes in lieu of General Liability insurance.
Each Occurrence Limit Under Sports General Liability PoliciesThe each occurrence limit under a General Liability policy for a sports or recreation organization such as a team, league, camp or recreation department should be at least $1,000,000 at a minimum. The limit is expressed as a combined single limit for both bodily injury and property damage liability.
The each occurrence limit is the amount of coverage that will apply to any one occurrence (incident or accident) even if it results in more than one lawsuit. For example, in a bleacher collapse incident involving multiple injuries and lawsuits, the entire $1,000,000 limit would be available to be split between all claimants.
Many facility and field owners now require facility users to provide evidence of a $2,000,000 Each Occurrence limit before they are allowed access. For this reason, a ports or recreation organization may want to consider carrying a $2,000,000 each occurrence limit. If this option is available, the additional cost is normally 20% of the underlying $1,000,000 limit.
If limits higher than $2,000,000 are needed, the best way to accomplish this is to request a quote for an Excess Liability policy which can be purchased in increments of $1,000,000. The minimum premium for each additional $1,000,000 increment will likely be in the $750 to $1,000 range. The actual premium may be higher than the minimum premium depending on the size of your exposure basis. (ex: number of participants or teams).
Source: John Sadler
Copyright 2004-2009 Sadler & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
General Aggregate Limit For Sports General Liability PoliciesThe General Aggregate limit on a General Liability policy for a sports or recreation organization such as a team, league, camp, or recreation department describes the maximum amount that is available under the policy to pay multiple lawsuit occurrences during a one year policy period.
The General Aggregate applies to premises and operations types of lawsuits such as those arising from spectator and participant injuries.
The minimum acceptable limit for the General Aggregate is $2,000,000 or NONE per league. Having a General Aggregate of NONE provides the broadest coverage since NONE means that there is no General Aggregate cap. In other words, there is an unlimited amount of coverage available.
For example, if a sports organization’s Each Occurrence limit is $1,000,000 and their General Aggregate limit is $2,000,000, they will have enough General Aggregate limits to pay the following:
Once the General Aggregate has been breached by multiple lawsuit occurrences during the policy year, the policy will no longer respond.
Some larger local, state, regional, and national sports organizations have customized their own General Liability programs for their membership. If a large number of teams or leagues share the same General Aggregate limit, this can be a problem as there might not be enough General Aggregate limits available.
For example, I have seen national organizations with thousands of leagues that have shared a single General Aggregate limit of $2,000,000. If several leagues were to have claims during a single policy year that totaled $1,500,000, there would only be $500,000 in General Aggregate limits left for the rest of the leagues.
The solution is to endorse the policy to make the General Aggregate limit to apply separately to each insured league.
Source: John Sadler
Copyright 2004-2009 Sadler & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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