I hold a large amount of equity in a friend's demolition and trucking company.  He was removing some scrap from a nearby company yesterday.

Yesterday, while at the chemical company, the backhoe operator allegedly blew a fuse on a power line.  I say allegedly because he was about 7 feet from the line at the time, and there were no arc burn marks on the equipment or anything.  It was the center conductor on a 7.5kV line.  While it is suspicious that the line would be tripped while the excavator was near, it is also possible that the outage is unrelated.  Who knows.

My friend's company was kicked off the site anyway, and the chemical company claimed that they had lost a large amount of in-process chemical, worth "thousands of dollars".

Now the chemical company is asking for a copy of the liability insurance policy.  This may be the opening volley in a legal battle.  Our attorney is not available this week, and we are unsure if we should provide a copy of the policy to them, or to batten down the hatches and refer them to our attorney.

On one hand, someone at the chemical company might just be covering their butt since they were supposed to obtain proof of coverage before allowing work on site.  On the other hand, the company may be exploring the "deeper pockets theory" of liability and it may be better to appear broke than to sling a $3M policy letter their way.  At that point, they would know there is at least something to go after.

My initial thought is to cooperate and send the policy over, but on the other hand, I have done similar things before and had an attorney tell me afterward that I should have disclosed as little as possible.  I'm not sure how benign sending proof of coverage is.  I have told Mike to contact the insurance agent, but he is a bit leery because it would be an "incident" on the policy and may cause a rate hike.  

What say you, Arfcommers?  We will probably stall and/or call the insurance agent, but this place is always excellent for pointing out things that the poster didn't think of.

Any linesmen on here know if a cause for the fuse blowing can be determined?  There is the possibility that the backhoe operator is lying to us about how close he was.

Hell No, Don't send anything until you talk to your lawyer and insurance company.

I would not  admit anything or give any info until I had the proper representation.

I had Mike call the insurance agent, and the agent said that we should definitely not send any insurance info to the company.  Mike is going to submit some incident reports to the ins. co and we will see what happens from there.

Tell him to get busy photodocumenting the equipment and the job site if he can. Get someone else to do it if you have to. Do it NOW.

Don't send them shit and don't say anything. Make them prove it was you. How much do you stand to lose if you never do business with them again?

Lemme tell you. If you touch a live conductor on an electrical pole. EVERYONE WILL KNOW IT! There will not be any question as to if you did! I call BS.

-Foxxz

Quoted: Lemme tell you. If you touch a live conductor on an electrical pole. EVERYONE WILL KNOW IT! There will not be any question as to if you did! I call BS. -Foxxz

Interesting.  We examined the equipment thoroughly, and there are no arc burns of any kind on the excavator.  Also, no one saw any sparks or flashes.  

Call your insurance company. They have a duty to defend your company unless they find that you are not covered under their policy. That means they deal with the claimant, not wasting your company's resources on the problem.

You should also be a Additional Named Insured under their General Liability and Umbrella/Excess policies if the company is a partnership or other liability-exposed organization.

Quoted: Call your insurance company. They have a duty to defend your company unless they find that you are not covered under their policy. That means they deal with the claimant, not wasting your company's resources on the problem. You should also be a Additional Named Insured under their General Liability and Umbrella/Excess policies if the company is a partnership or other liability-exposed organization.

C-Corp.  I am not an officer, just a Director, and I carry O&E insurance.

Good point about not wasting resources - Mike is kind of a worrier and this would consume him.  That's why he asked me to help him with it.  

Quoted: Quoted: Lemme tell you. If you touch a live conductor on an electrical pole. EVERYONE WILL KNOW IT! There will not be any question as to if you did! I call BS. -Foxxz Interesting.  We examined the equipment thoroughly, and there are no arc burns of any kind on the excavator.  Also, no one saw any sparks or flashes.

Yea its hard to miss. You will hear the explosion for miles, molten metal, a bright arc that will make the sun seem dim, and your guy in the equipment will not be a happy camper. There is no possible way to miss it. Its a pretty clear case. If the insurance company gets involved and investigates they will at least say its not from contacting your equipment.

-Foxxz