Equine Liability Insurance

[BeeHoney]

@S1969, No, I am definitely not a lawyer, but neither am I just guessing. I have owned, managed, and rented farms and equine businesses for decades and have consulted with insurance agents and lawyers many times regarding these exact issues. I strongly recommend that anyone with specific real life questions should consult their insurance agent–it’s an easy phone call–and consider involving a lawyer in your state for recommendations.

Anyway, a commercial policy protects a BO from liability related to any negligence on the part of the BO/the business/ the employees. The fact that an accident occurred on the premises does not necessarily = negligence on the part of the barn. Let’s take the case you describe, where a self-care boarder makes an agreement with another boarder to take turns feeding and turning out the horses, and one of the boarders gets kicked in the head. I think it would likely be a challenge to go to court and prove that the BO was somehow negligent in that scenario. Obviously it also might be difficult to surmount any state statutes limiting equine liability and/or any liability releases that may have been signed.

I agree with you 100% that lawsuits can always happen and a BO should be appropriately insured, because defending a lawsuit with little-no merit can still be expensive.

I’m sorry that you are in that situation WRT your current lawsuit. I don’t think that there are a lot of parallels between automobile insurance/liability and equine commercial insurance/liability, but that still seems like a very difficult and stressful situation.

[S1969]

@BeeHoney

@S1969Anyway, a commercial policy protects a BO from liability related to any negligence on the part of the BO/the business/ the employees. The fact that an accident occurred on the premises does not necessarily = negligence on the part of the barn. Let’s take the case you describe, where a self-care boarder makes an agreement with another boarder to take turns feeding and turning out the horses, and one of the boarders gets kicked in the head. I think it would likely be a challenge to go to court and prove that the BO was somehow negligent in that scenario. Obviously it also might be difficult to surmount any state statutes limiting equine liability and/or any liability releases that may have been signed.

Maybe we are talking about different things – in the case of my lawsuit - it is actually the insurance companies battling with each other. I will be covered. But MY insurance will be affected. Which may mean that my rates will go up if my insurance company loses, or I could get dropped.

In the case of a barn accident - the health insurance of the injured party may try to tap into the insurance of any available party. I would think that the insurance company of the barn owner is fair game by the other insurance company. As is the owner of the horse. I’m not sure why you think that the owner would have to be negligent - isn’t this the whole point of insurance? To cover injuries/accidents?

If the barn owner has no insurance - the only way to subrogate the claim is to the boarder’s insurance company OR to sue the barn owner personally (which is probably useless because most people are fairly judgment proof - unless you want to take their farm.)

For this reason - I would want the barn owner to also have liability insurance. It does help that most state’s have equine limit laws - my state did not get one until a couple of years ago, so it was not in existence when I boarded horses…and was therefore a big concern for insuring myself.

[BeeHoney]

@S1969

Maybe we are talking about different things – in the case of my lawsuit - it is actually the insurance companies battling with each other. I will be covered. But MY insurance will be affected. Which may mean that my rates will go up if my insurance company loses, or I could get dropped.

In the case of a barn accident - the health insurance of the injured party may try to tap into the insurance of any available party. I would think that the insurance company of the barn owner is fair game by the other insurance company. As is the owner of the horse. I’m not sure why you think that the owner would have to be negligent - isn’t this the whole point of insurance? To cover injuries/accidents?

If the barn owner has no insurance - the only way to subrogate the claim is to the boarder’s insurance company OR to sue the barn owner personally (which is probably useless because most people are fairly judgment proof - unless you want to take their farm.)

For this reason - I would want the barn owner to also have liability insurance. It does help that most state’s have equine limit laws - my state did not get one until a couple of years ago, so it was not in existence when I boarded horses…and was therefore a big concern for insuring myself.

The owner of a horse does not have to be negligent in order to be held responsible for any injuries damages it might cause. There is some variability by state here, but in general, the owner of an animal can be held responsible for any damages or injuries that animal causes.

I completely agree with your point that it is mutually beneficial for both a boarding barn AND individual horse owners to each carry adequate insurance. That is the same principle as to why boarding barns require visiting trainers (and any other contractors who may work on site) to show proof of their own insurance.

Mainly I want to point out that it is generally very difficult to “tap into” a barns commercial liability policy, and that expecting a payout from that source in the event of an accident is probably not realistic unless there is good evidence of gross negligence. The fact that an accident happened “on site” is not enough to hold an equestrian business liable for the accident.

Also, I don’t think that you think this but for the sake of others who may be reading along (likely no one else at this point) there are common misconceptions out there. One is that a barn’s commercial policy makes it unnecessary for people to have their own health insurance to cover horse related accidents (completely false) and another is that a barn’s Care, Custody and Control Policy makes it unnecessary for owners to have their own major medical/mortality policies for their horses (also completely untrue).

I will add that the legal landscape can vary by state. However, in general, I feel that we are lucky that the system works the way it does. Commercial equine policies aren’t cheap, but if people started expecting them to cover any accident that occurred on premises, I think that those policies would quickly price many barns out of business and many customers out of horse ownership.