The following is an article from Brian Kilcoyne, CIC President of H&K Insurance and director of our Golf & Country Club Program.
Bodily injury that you cause to someone or to someone’s property is a simple definition of liability.
A common definition of a named insured for a club is the club itself, all its employees, managers, directors, officers, members, and volunteers.
Golf Cart Liability in Action
Below we have listed several scenarios of golf cart liability. Will the club be covered for each of these scenarios? Try to guess if the answer is “yes,” or “no”. You always need to refer to your policy, but the answers below are assuming there is a well-written policy in place.
- A member is driving the cart with a guest he brings to the club. The member drives over a curb and tips the cart. The guest falls out and gets injured.
- A member is driving with another member in the cart with same scenario as above. The member who was the passenger gets hurt.
- The club serves beer to the golfing members, and when crossing over a public road to get to the next hole, a member hits a car he did not see coming.
- One member driving a cart hits another member driving another cart, and all parties are injured.
- A parent allows a child without a driver’s license (minor) to drive the cart. The child runs into another cart and the passengers become injured.
Answers
- If sued, the club and member driving are covered.
- The club and member driving are covered, but the injured party is not (unless written into an insurance contract for coverage). The injured member is a named insured and therefore, can’t sue the club because he would be suing himself.
- The club and member are covered, but the member can be cited for driving under the influence. The club most likely will be sued under their liquor liability policy by the driver of the vehicle.
- The club would be covered, but the injured members are not, for the same reason as #2.
- The club and members are covered, and if it is a family membership, the child will be covered.
Clubs need to be extremely careful about serving alcohol on the course, especially when carts will be driven on public roads.
A helpful hint for members of the club: You will be able to pick up coverage under the liability section of your homeowner’s policy if you are sued individually.
If you’d like to learn more about our Golf & Country Club Program, you can read more here. Please contact us to get a free quote, or if you have any other questions about your coverage.