Current legal cases of skipper liability insurance
Did you know that YACHT-POOL ‘s skipper liability insurance also protects you against insurance companies?
The skipper is liable for all damage culpably caused to others. So far so clear – according to many.
But of course damage also occurs for which the skipper is not at fault. And therein lies the problem:
- When is the skipper at fault?
- When did the skipper perhaps even act with “gross negligence”?
Important: even if it is “only” a vacation cruise, case law regularly assumes that the skipper is an “expert” because he has an official certificate of competence. This presupposes professional conduct – and even a slight deviation from this is considered at least “simple negligence”. Normally, the charter deposit is then lost. A loss of up to several thousand euros, depending on the ship and area, which the charter deposit insurance from YACHT-POOL reimburses up to 95% – if you have taken out one.
The defense of innocence
But what if the skipper is accused of “gross negligence”, as in the example below? Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case!
An increasing problem is the approach of aggressive hull insurers of charter ships: because if the insurer assumes “gross negligence”, the liability of the charter skipper is not limited at all – up to the value of the ship!
Last season, we saw several cases where the skipper received a demand for payment from the charter vessel’s hull insurer many months after the trip. In one case even over EUR 144,655 payable within 8 days!
Now the charter skipper has to defend his innocence – at his own expense, before a foreign court in lengthy proceedings – and default interest is due for every day that passes. Even if the accusation ultimately proves to be unfounded, the skipper initially has to pay considerable legal fees. A situation that none of us would want to experience and that would probably threaten the existence of most of us.
Even if a settlement were reached, it would still be a good deal for the hull insurer – and a devastating loss for the skipper.
Fortunately, this skipper had done everything right and taken out skipper’s liability insurance from YACHT-POOL. Now experienced lawyers are defending the skipper in court at YACHT-POOL’s expense – and in the worst case YACHT-POOL pays the damages plus court costs.
In this sense, YACHT-POOL’s skipper liability insurance is also insurance against insurance companies and their arbitrariness!
Similar cases. like this can be found in the book
THE SKIPPER’S LIABILITY – in the chapter “When problem solvers become a problem”
