ORIGINAL: F106A
Abel,
The $2.5 million came about because the property owners wanted more covereage to cover them in case of an accident.
This started when the owner of Elliot's field wanted an increase from $1 million to $2 million. Elliot contacted AMA and they said they couldn't provide it, so he found someone who could and started SFA. After a while, AMA found a way to provide the increased coverage.
When you think about it, $2.5 mil is not a lot of money anymore when talking about lawsuits.
BRG,
Jon
Yeah Jon, Elliot went outside the box. Then he ran into the 800 lb gorilla guarding the box.[
]
I hope you didn't think I said a liability judgment of $2.5 mil can't happen, as I intended only that it hasn't happened yet as a consequence of flying a model airplane. I meant that as an indicator that risk facing any one of us getting hit for that kind of liability is exceedingly small. The risk that somebody among the total population of AMA (160,000?) will, is of course much greater. It's not worth much of a cost/risk trade-off for something like AMA insurance, where the coverage in the amount $2.5 mil (for very narrowly defined risks) costs only a few bucks, and reducing it would only save pocket change. When you are looking for broad, comprehensive coverage like a PUP and the premium may be the $100's per mil, then most of us do generally consider more carefully how much is enough. Heck, most people insure their cars for the state mandated minimum that wouldn't cover fender-bender damage to a parked 4-Runner.
Abel