Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2021! May this be a better year for everyone.
Over the years, I’ve written quite a few articles on the different production insurance options that our customers have with Equipment & Production Insurance. So far we’ve covered General Liability Insurance, Equipment Insurance, Hired Auto Insurance, Workers’ Comp, plus several more. I hope that many of you have gained some valuable insight through those articles. However, I understand it all gets a little confusing at times.
To help make production insurance easier to understand, we are going to put together a series of ‘real world’ examples. I will detail ACTUAL insurance claims that I’ve seen during my career. It’s one thing to read about insurance coverages, but it’s another to hear of what an actual customer had to go through. Hopefully, their experience can give you valuable insight into your production insurance needs.
Production Insurance Claims: True Stories – General Liability Insurance
If you read my blog post on General Liability, you are aware this type of coverage does NOT cover damage done to the location where you are filming. It only covers damage or injuries to third parties. So let’s talk about the claim, and keep in mind that I’m prevented legally from mentioning names or saying how much was paid. Regardless, I think you’ll get the point anyway.
This scenario happened about five or six years ago. One of my customers bought a short-term General Liability policy to film in an apartment complex. They were filming in one of the apartments, and somebody knocked over a cup of coffee without noticing that they had done it. By the time they found the stain, the coffee had seeped down through the carpet, and it had started to drip into the apartment below. It dripped onto some very costly gator skin boots that the eccentric man downstairs was keeping in his closet. The insured submitted the claim, but the insurance company did not cover the damage to the carpet. The reason they denied the payout was because the carpet was under the insured’s care and control. They covered the damage that was done to the neighbor’s ceiling and his boots and then the claim was closed.
I frequently use this claim as an example when discussing with clients the difference between Third Party Property Damage (the coverage that insures damage done to your location), and General Liability. I hope this helps illustrate this important insurance coverage. If you have any other questions, then please feel free to call me to discuss things further. (818) 295-2266
