WINTER 2014 | MARINE TECHNICIAN TODAY
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COVER YOUR ASSETS
S
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check at that fine restaurant. All these businesses have “care, custody
and control” of your personal property. Legally, they have created what
is known as a “bailment,” just as you do with a boat or engine.
The Solution
Now that we know the exclusion exists for personal property in
your care, custody and control how do we provide the insurance
protection? For a marine repair technician, as with an auto
mechanic, we could be looking at some serious dollars! With V8
outboards now running $25,000 and up these values add up quickly.
If you own a shop and you have customer’s boats and engines for
servicing you could have a very sizeable financial exposure to loss
that you should be insured against.
The solution is “legal liability insurance,” or “bailee’s insurance.”
For the marine industry you want what is referred to as Marine
Operator’s Legal Liability (MOLL) or Ship Repairer’s Legal Liability
(SRLL). Consider both to be more or less the same, but if you
provide full service such as storage, hauling and repair you likely
want MOLL, whereas if you just do repair work you will likely
look for SRLL. Both accomplish the same goal, which is to fill the
insurance gap created by the care, custody and control exclusion.
Many AMTECH members are ‘road warriors’ and don’t have a fixed
repair site. They go to the customer. You might think, “I don’t take
customer’s boats back to my shop so I don’t need this marine legal
liability coverage.” Actually, you do. Even at your customer’s house,
once you begin work on an engine that property is now in your
“care, custody and control.” You don’t have to bring it anywhere
to trigger the coverage exclusion. Mobile repair technicians need
this coverage as the shop owner or marina requires it. Granted,
your exposure is much smaller since you will usually only have
one boat in your care at one time, unlike a shop that may have 5 or
more boats on site. But you still need this coverage for your “care
custody and control” when you work on that boat.
Another response we hear is “I don’t need this because my
customers insure their own boat, and I get proof before I work
on it.” That method works fine until the customer’s insurance
company believes that you were at fault for the damage. After they
pay their customer they sue you to recover their claim payment.
You can’t escape legal liability for care custody and control, even
with a waiver or disclaimer.
A final warning, to save you from a mistake we often see made on
insurance programs for marine technicians. Since your operations
appear to be the same as a mechanic, we see many insurance
agents insure AMTECH members as “mechanics.” They use
“Garagekeepers Legal Liability” (GKLL) and add that to cover the
care, custody and control of your customer’s boats and engines.
Beware, the GKLL coverage form speaks only about coverage for
“autos” in your care custody and control. Unless you moonlight
as an auto mechanic, GKLL is not going to help you. You need a
marine insurance specialist.
For many of you, winter will be the off season. Take this slow time
to review your insurance coverage and get ready for the 2015
boating season. Insurance can protect your business and your
personal assets and it can also grow your revenue by getting you
into places the uninsured technician can not go. Cheers, and here’s
to a wonderful 2015 boating season!
James Kay, CIC, CRM is President of Stafford & Co Insurance, the endorsed
Insurance Professionals for AMTECH. Reach them at amtech@stafford-insurance.
com or see their ad nearby.
