insurance, lawsuits and liability

Thanks for taking my question. I found this forum while searching for an answer. We are a community of around 500 homes and under HOA control. We had an injury recently on common property. It was very minor an no situation has arisen because of it. This did cause some concern by the BOD and raises the following question.

Would the association be liable for injury to a HO on common property who completes work without authorization? Quick details: We have a homeowner who takes it upon himself to do odd jobs around the community to keep himself busy. This could be anything from pulling weeds to changing a light bulb. I'm sure everyone thanks him for his dedication but he is doing this without any direction of the board or any committee. Would the HOA be liable if say he injures his back or does something that causes another person to get injured because work was improperly completed? I believe our insurance covers authorized work by volunteers but not sure about unauthorized. Even then, I would be more concerned about an expensive lawsuit.

Are we attempting to be over cautious? No one ever questioned it before the minor injury.

I am not nor do I play a lawyer.

So we have this person that was doing something (weeding, walking, playing Frisbee, whatever he chose to do) and he injured himself.

What does the BOD have to do with this? I say nothing, nada, zippo, etc.

Have had similar situation and our Board was informed that yes, even without prior authorization, the Association could be held liable. The "volunteers" were verbally warned that they needed to get prior authorization from the Board. If they didn't then the Board was informed that "cease and desist" letters could be sent.

The Board was also aware that the insurance company required prior notice before the Board should proceed with such "volunteer" activities. Fair enough to the insurance company as they would have to pay out and certain risk management is required. The question is where to draw the line. Pulling weeds isn't bad. Cutting tree limbs near electrical lines isn't a good "volunteer opportunity" in terms of risk management. Nor is climbing on a roof, standing on a tall ladder, or working around high voltage equipment.

I think it's an, " it depends" situation. If the willing worker bee volunteer slips in an oil slick that was reported to the board to take care of, they'd be liable and might still be liable even if they did not know.

On the other hand, if he dropped a saw that severed his foot on the way home drunk from a job, you likely wouldn't obligated. So it's a definite maybe, and it's more likely that it would be a winnable suit provided the plaintiff hired an attorney who could squeeze the nickels out of the insurance company.

Two yrs ago I broke an ankle in a friends garage while I was there to assist his father getting to Costco. I slipped in oil, and it was a very bad break. Bc the father did not know the oil was present, my attorney thought at best I'd get a few thousand. Hospital expenses were high and it filed a lien on my lawsuit just in case I did better than that. The 1st offer from the insurance company was $80k, which we had the courage to decline later we settled at 122k. Had I been employed at the time, the settlement could have been more bc it would have included time off from work. Start to finish, once negotiation started there might have been 6-8 phone calls between my atty and the insurance company over 3 days.

Don't assume that bc he has his own health insurance that it doesn't matter. I had lousy insurace and was out of pocket $16k ... The hospital still wants what the insurance company doesn't cover.

Good attorneys give the person harmed a worse case scenario , but they will keep pushing an insurace company. And they will chase small amounts. I gave him my absolute bottom line, and if that wasn't met, we'd go to court. We didn't need to go to court ... I considered the settlement a win. Through research I found one case which was similar and insurance paid $135k. Slightly better than mine.

So my advice is to focus on "it depends". Don't put yourself in a position where you need to lie. Attorneys are used to that and they will eventually get the right information. You don't want to perjure yourself so the HOA saves a few bucks.

in many/most jurisdictions an injury at 'work' MUST be covered by workman's compensation

my terminology may be erroneous, but the principle is valid