Festival Cancelled as Insurance Does not Cover Personal Injury

Festival organisers have been devastated by the news that their insurers will not pay out after a fire made it impossible to hold the festival.

To add insult to injury, after battling with their insurance company they discovered that they were not covered for a number of basic things, most shockingly personal injury.

They found out that as well as not being able to claim back the £14,000 they lost out on by being unable to hold the event, they were not covered in the even that anyone had suffered personal injury at the festival and brought a claim against them.

Their insurers told them that they should not even bother collecting a claim form as they will not be covered.

Mr Noble of Crombie Lockwood, says that “If the claim is not covered there is no point in initiating a load of paperwork.”

They were insured with insurance company Crombie Lockwood, who left them a voicemail earlier this month saying “If you insist on getting a claim form, we will send you one, but it will be declined.”

Ms Lambert, one of the organisers says that the claim form has not arrived. She has a law degree and is disappointed in the way in which Crombie Lockwood have conducted themselves.

She says that they should be covered as their policy covers loss. She says “There is no other loss we could have suffered but the loss of the event.”

She was also confused by their personal injury cover, saying that it is not possible under national law to cover for personal injury in the way which the company claims.

The company dispute this saying that their policy is water tight and there are areas of personal injury which their policy can legally cover for.

The public liability policy covered third party property damage or injury caused by the insured person or organisation's negligence. Neither of these applied.

Ms Lambert warns others taking out insurance policies with Crombie Lockwood to check whether they are truly covered for all that the company claim they are covered for.

She advises researching the law and reading all the small print in the insurance policies to avoid a shock if they do face a personal injury claim.

A personal injury claim brought against a company without insurance would be almost guaranteed to devastate the company with high legal costs, payouts and the possibility of having to pay the winning sides uplifted legal costs in addition to their own legal costs.

The dispute between the festival organisers and the insurance company is ongoing. A spokesman for Crombie Lockwood says “Sometimes there is not a claim but they have to go through the process regardless.”

He went on to say that “If they do submit a claim form and it is declined there is a process available to the committee to appeal the decision in accordance with the Fair Insurance Code.”

The festival organisers are disappointed with the way that they have been treated by their insurance company and made this comment on the situation:

“The committee put a huge amount of time and effort into organising the event. It was not their fault that it was cancelled and we do not wish the committee to be left out of pocket and faced with significant debt.”