Incident/Witness reports

There was a recent incident involving a volunteer.
He was injured lifting a heavy object , then after saying he was "OK"--got in his golf cart & drove away. He was found unconscious on the side of the Associations road and the cart tipped. Folks came to his aid and he awoke & refused to go to ER. Several witnesses where there and heard this. They carried the man home, however he lives alone. THat is another subject as he could have had a serious head injury that would only be noticed several hours later ( ie subdural hematoma)
The next day upon hearing of this matter, I call the Chairman of our insurance committee and asked if all the incident/witness report were done. He became angry and said that " Under his watch there will be no more claims", as we were having trouble renewing our insurance due to claims. I said " You can not stop folks from filing a claim & we needed those reports to protect us,in case folks change their minds years later & sue for personal injury. Fla. Stat. Ann. § 95.11(3)(a) (2016) Personal injury time limit is 4 yrs. This Chairman has also removed the incidents forms from the clubhouse. Interestingly, I believe this same fellow was injured many years ago & sued our Association & settled for 5 figure dollars. I feel the Board is putting the members of Assoc. at monetary risk by allowing these actions by the Chairman, and therefore they need to remove him from his post ASAP. Thoughts?

You're in a tough spot. Here are my thoughts, although many of them are after-the-fact and hindsight.

* I don't believe anyone other than the board decides whether to file a claim. However, the Chairman sees trouble on the horizon. Multiple claims can cause your insurance rates to rise dramatically or make your association totally uninsurable. This is obviously a bad thing.

* We don't use volunteers at all, mainly because of liability risks. Is the money you save worth dealing with less-than-professional work and insurance claims such as the one that's staring you in the face?

* You need legal assistance PROMPTLY. You should contact the association's attorney as well as the insurance agent immediately and have some frank discussions about what's coming, and then let the professionals guide the board's decisions. In the meantime, get names and addresses of potential witnesses. With luck you'll be able to get written statements, but you should let the attorney deal with this to prevent being accused of coercing the witnesses.

I wish you the best.

Are you on the board, SueW?

Never heard of such a Committee either so sounds like you're a large HOA. In any case, the board is completely responsible for committee members. What authority does the Committee's charter give it and the committee's chair?

Well, as soon as that guy's lawyer files a claim, you can guarantee your insurance company is going to give you notice to drop you. Since all insurance companies share this claim info, the ones left who might insure you will charge a very high rate.

Someone needs to go. The person who decided it was ok, for the guy who sued the HOA to continue doing stuff for the HOA. I would ask for his resignation.

This issue wont be over for a long, long time.

SUE

Do not encourage linkage between him lifting an object than later cracking up his golf cart. Keep the incidents separate.

We do have volunteers, e.g., our Social Committee. They'll start putting up holiday decorations in our 2 lobbies (high rise) and an exterior area. They are NOT permitted to climb ladders to, for example, decorate the areas of the Xmas trees that are out of reach. None are allowed to do anything "work" that involves electricity, heavy lifting or climbing.

Thanks for all the feedback. Lots of things going on with this board.
Too bad folks get in over their heads. I'm trying to get help from others on this.