Hi Nate,
Can't members of the club be held liable as well as officers? 73 Gary K4FMX _____ From: Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com [mailto:repeater-buil...@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Nate Duehr Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 8:31 PM To: Repeater Builder List Cc: <repeater-builder@yahoogroups.com> Subject: Re: [Repeater-Builder] Site Insurance Vendors Yeah I know. I just didn't want to depress people further. If you have "considerable assets", of any kind -- being a club leader is inherently a very risky position to put yourself in, financially -- now that corporate rules regarding liability of organizations have been eviscerated. Thank Enron and Qwest leadership for the motivation to change the law the next time you see them. ARRL says little about this. They have a whole organization dedicated to clubs that never says a word in any publication about how to properly set up Amateur organizations from a liability standpoint. At least my AOPA membership means they lobby for product liability changes in aviation. If ARRL ever starts fighting for liability limits for volunteer organizations in The Beltway instead of the never-ending BPL fight, I'll be pretty impressed. -- Nate Duehr Sent from my iPhone On Jan 26, 2009, at 17:49, Butch Kanvick <hot...@hotmail.com> wrote: Usually when some one signs a waiver letter, it is not worth the ink that it is written with. You cannot assign your rights away before something happens, it usually means you have just admitted liability with them signing the letter. It might slow down litigation by about 5 minutes, but does not mean anything. It is feel good measure, but good luck when it is used against you. Butch, KE7FEL/r _____ To: <mailto:Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com> Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com From: <mailto:n...@natetech.com> n...@natetech.com Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:12:39 -0700 Subject: RE: [Repeater-Builder] Site Insurance Vendors Check to see if they can later subrogate in cases of negligence or gross negligence in your state. In California, I think it's gross negligence, but I'd have to check. Sure they have to defend you, but if they lose... then they can usually turn around and sue you. And... this becomes a conflict of interest, because in States where they can subrogate only in cases of GROSS negligence (you have to get the difference between negligence and gross negligence here...), they're motivated to provide you with a really shoddy defense. Basically the old adage comes true again -- any lawyer you're not paying out of your pocket, isn't looking out for your best interests, they're looking to the best interests of their CLIENT. In this case, the insurance company. Let's use a real-world example: Someone falls off a tower and is hurt. It'd be REALLY easy for any lawyer involved to prove GROSS negligence today if everyone climbing didn' t have FORMAL OSHA-Approved climbing training. Send one guy up the tower who VOLUNTEERS to do so without modern training, and he falls, and you don't have a signed waiver from him -- if you're an officer of the organization, be prepared to lose your house to his widow. This is the kind of stuff that keeps club Presidents and officers awake at night when it's time to replace antennas. Nate -----Original Message----- From: Repeater-Builder@ <mailto:Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com [mailto:Repeater-Builder@ <mailto:Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Dave Gomberg Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 3:06 PM To: Repeater-Builder@ <mailto:Repeater-Builder@yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [Repeater-Builder] Site Insurance Vendors At 13:34 1/26/2009, Nate Duehr wrote: >Also consider that most of your Bo ard and Officers will be bankrupt from >paying for the lawyers to defend themselves (let alone the organization) >long before the insurance kicks in... Nate You picked a bad state, Nate. In California, an insurance company has a duty to defend, even if they think the suit is baseless or not covered by your policy (they must defend to ensure that they get that ruling). And they pay for the defense. FWIW, I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV, this is NOT legal advice. > -- Dave Gomberg, San Francisco NE5EE gomberg1 at wcf dot com All addresses, phones, etc. at <http://www.wcf.com/ham/info.html> http://www.wcf.com/ham/info.html ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links
