Saving on deductible insurance, many producers believe that it is possible to find a more reasonable investment, however, received a court order for the payment of multimillion-dollar damage, you can lose not only the savings on the insurance funds, but often the enterprise as a whole. How not to bring his company to bankruptcy and what the consequences might be unwise policy of risk management?
This story happened in the mid-nineties, when about insurance in our country was just beginning to learn. Although some of our fellow citizens, and insure summer houses or apartments, but even CTP was not yet in the project, and the cars themselves rarely were the object of insurance protection.
However, in the aviation environment, people traditionally often faced with insurance, which is associated with high cost aircraft, and with the huge responsibility of owners and operators, as well as the fact that they had to fly abroad, where liability insurance in the operation of the armed forces was not only accepted, but also mandatory requirement for flight.
One Russian company — manufacturer of small aircraft agreed to supply its products in the United States. Partner overseas has agreed to implement several dozens of samples of products for private clients, clubs and other potential consumers of this type of aircraft. The contract was signed, the products began to ship to the States, and the parties were preparing to count the profits from a mutually beneficial transaction. At the same time about such a seemingly little thing as insurance of liability of producers for quality of products, all parties to the transaction have forgotten.
Then everything happened like in a bad dream: in the process of operation of the buyer already in the U.S. one of the cars by reason of defect in the power structure (as was later established) crashed. The pilot was killed. It began litigation and proceedings. Russian producer from complete destruction was saved by the fact that the owner of the aircraft (the deceased pilot) was retired and lonely man and his heirs left. American lawyers were able to sue merely, so to speak, $ 1.8 million., what by their standards was a mere trifle.
In the insurance world widely known precedents when claims of heirs of those killed in aviation disasters specially served in the American courts, even if the disaster happened in a completely different part of the world, and the victims were not citizens of the United States. And in contrast to European (and especially Russian) courts, the U.S. not simply make decisions in favor of victims (or their heirs), and oblige the perpetrators of the disaster to pay a huge compensation for moral damage, which, in our judicial practice is rarely taken into account, and in Europe is not evaluated such astronomical amounts of money.
That is why in the world a long time ago invented and put into effect such an effective tool as a liability insurance of the manufacturer and developer of aviation technology. Nowadays a large number of Russian producers connected with aircraft, deliver products to consumers in various parts of the world.
Only the attitude towards insurance is not very changed from that time: well, if the end-user of the articles mandatorily prescribes in the contract liability insurance of producers and domestic enterprises with no choice but to contact the insurance company to insure their risks. If mandatory requirements do not exist, often products are sold just like that without any insurance, and the company saves on insurance premium payment.
But we are talking not only about the parts or workpieces, and sometimes on ready aircraft and helicopters, where the risk of bugs and the developer is significantly higher than, say, a titanium forging.
In conclusion, I would like to say is that insurance is better to buy in large proven companies — not only does this guarantee a full coverage to the developers and manufacturers of aviation equipment, but also timely payment of compensation. Having a significant insurance reserves, the insurer in the state after the customer’s submission of documents, allowing to recognize the case of insurance, promptly compensate for the damages using their financial assets.
It must be remembered that in life there is a risk of occurrence of unforeseen circumstances, the financial protection which can be provided only by a liability insurance policy producers.
03.02.2020