Sometimes outdoor recreation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and your clients could find themselves at the centre of a wacky claim. Here are some sample “sporting” claims that made their way onto ClaimCrazy.com, a website where insurers and adjusters submit their strangest claims to compete for $100 in gift cards.
Fore!
The plaintiff in an insurance case, a golfer, was standing in the middle of a fairway on a golf course texting on his smart phone. Much to his surprise, he was hit on the head by a golf ball.
The plaintiff filed a lawsuit, alleging that the golfer behind him was negligent because he had failed to warn the plaintiff before hitting the ball while the plaintiff was still on the fairway. The plaintiff also alleged that the golf course was negligent for designing the golf course in such a way that it created a hazard for golfers.
At the plaintiff’s deposition, one of the defense attorneys showed the plaintiff a blown-up picture of him texting while in the middle of the fairway. The time stamp was about two minutes before the accident happened, and the defendant golfer took the picture.
After being questioned repeatedly why he hit the ball onto the fairway while the plaintiff was standing there, the defendant finally testified that he was aiming for plaintiff’s phone and not the plaintiff’s head, which he had hit.
The defendant golfer’s insurance company entered into a confidential settlement with the plaintiff.
Adding a claim to injury
A post on ClaimCrazy.com relates a claim by an injured snow skier.
The man was skiing on a marked course and fell. As a result of the fall, he suffered multiple broken bones, bruises and sprains.
The ski patrol strapped the injured skier to a toboggan and then took him down the hill by snowmobile. At some point, the snowmobile veered to avoid an out-of-control skier. The swerve caused the toboggan with the injured skier to flip over, slamming the injured man into the ground.
“It is going to be difficult to prove which injuries he suffered as a result of his fall and which injuries occurred, if any, as a result of the tobaggan [sic] flipping over!” the post states. “CRAZY.”
