?? about insurance for Troop trailer

[T2Eagle]

What if someone else buys a trailer, it's titled to them, they pay the registration and insurance on it, but it's used by the Troop and has the Troop name and BSA insignia on it. Is it still the CO's trailer, even if it's titled to an individual?

The answer depends a lot on who's asking and why. The simplest answer is that for most purposes the individual would be considered the owner and could do with the trailer whatever he or she wants, including sell it for their own profit, and they would be liable for any damage caused by the trailer. It's possible that if the trailer was the proximate cause of an injury to someone that then that person could demonstrate in a law suit that the CO was the effective or "equitable" owner of the trailer and therefore liable for the damage caused. Similarly a CO could make a case that they were the equitable owner of the trailer and reclaim it or prevent the sale of it by the individual holding the title. Both scenarios would depend a lot on specific facts and evidence and individual state laws.

 

(edited because without automatic spell check my poor typing makes my posts almost gibberish.)

Edited October 1, 2017 by T2Eagle

[T2Eagle]

Is this trailer dead storage or is it  tagged and registered by X for the road? If the latter, the trailer must  already have some insurance paid by X and adding coverage for contents should be straight-forward.  Should be?

 

It is common here for the unit to acquire a trailer and pass ownership from one adult leader to another.  Typically CO's want  nothing to do with maintaining, inspecting, insuring, registering,..., parking, securing,  reporting it  stolen

In my state, and I know for sure in several others, there is no requirement that a trailer be insured just because it's registered.

 

One question I don't know the answer to is whether a trailer is even worth insuring against loss. Typically insurance covers the fair market value(FMV) of the insured item. What is the FMV of a bunch of used tents, dining flies, and stoves? Probably not much if anything. Our trailer is coming up on 15 years old, our best guess is we could get $1000 for it. I would be surprised if our trailer and everything in it was worth $3000. It would cost us much more than that to replace it, but that's likely what an insurance company would value it at. With any kind of reasonable deductible I'm not sure buying insurance against theft or loss would even be worth it.

Edited October 1, 2017 by T2Eagle

[Cleveland Rocks]

The answer depends a lot on who's asking and why. The simplest answer is that for most purposes the individual would be considered the owner and could do with the trailer whatever he or she wants, including sell it for their own profit, and they would be liable for any damage caused by the trailer. It's possible that if the trailer was the proximate cause of an injury to someone that then that person could demonstrate in a law suit that the CO was the effective or "equitable" owner of the trailer and therefore liable for the damage caused. Similarly a CO could make a case that they were the equitable owner of the trailer and reclaim it or prevent the sale of it by the individual holding the title. Both scenarios would depend a lot on specific facts and evidence and individual state laws.

 

(edited because without automatic spell check my poor typing makes my posts almost gibberish.)

 

I was asking in the context of whether the CO had any liability or ownership stake in the case that something happened (it hasn't).

 

My Troop's trailer was purchased by an individual that used to be a Scouter in the troop. It is registered (the license plate) to him, and the insurance policy is in his name.  Yet, the trailer has the troop name, CO's name, BSA, council, etc., on the trailer.  I was wondering if in the discussion of true ownership of troop assets, if this falls in with the tents, cooking gear, etc., that the troop owns (and is really owned ultimately by the CO).  It sounds like from a liability standpoint if something were to happen that would invoke a claim, whether the troop and CO would be off the hook, so to speak, for liability, since the trailer is not in the CO's name.

[T2Eagle]

I was asking in the context of whether the CO had any liability or ownership stake in the case that something happened (it hasn't).

 

My Troop's trailer was purchased by an individual that used to be a Scouter in the troop. It is registered (the license plate) to him, and the insurance policy is in his name.  Yet, the trailer has the troop name, CO's name, BSA, council, etc., on the trailer.  I was wondering if in the discussion of true ownership of troop assets, if this falls in with the tents, cooking gear, etc., that the troop owns (and is really owned ultimately by the CO).  It sounds like from a liability standpoint if something were to happen that would invoke a claim, whether the troop and CO would be off the hook, so to speak, for liability, since the trailer is not in the CO's name.

That scenario would almost certainly mean that the CO has no ownership, and therefore no liability, regarding the trailer. The murkier situation would be if the troop used its (therefore the CO's) money to purchase the trailer, but titled and registered it in a scouter's name.