GENERAL LIABILITY: Any organization of more than one person is required to follow certain guidelines to absolve any potential liability to any one person, rather than to the organization as an entity. Personal responsibility is identified by "any single or multiple members of a group, taking it upon themselves to plan, procure or accomplish a given task without the full awareness and majority vote of the membership." The advantage of an organization's structure, and especially as a legally incorporated entity, is that any and all decisions made, are the cumulative desire for the organization as a whole, as voted on by the majority of it's members. In this way, no one single or multiple members may be held responsible or liable as a direct result of that decision.
GETTING THE VOTE TO THE MEMBERSHIP: This is the premise for accurate secretarial records, and publicly archiving these group majority decisions. Formal submission of a topic to be voted on, to every member with reasonable and ample opportunity provided for each and everyone to respond, is the basis for a majority decision to made upon. After the information has been submitted, and ample time given for consideration, a majority vote or at minimal, a survey conducted, will result in a no-fault decision which will hold the members and board directors harmless on an individual level.
ALTERNATIVE LIABILITY: Besides the permanent archive of the secretary's record, the advent of the Internet has allowed a permanent record to exist of on-line decisions and discussions, which can be for better or worse. For instance, one benefit would include a group decision being made, providing documented proof of the group's final vote. On the other hand, an individual making a single decision will also provide proof of a non-voted decision, therefore holding personal liabilities toward that person. This is the premise for bringing every major decision in front of the general membership for consideration and a majority vote.
AN EXAMPLE OF PERSONAL LIABILITY: Say an organization says they want to hold a trail ride. It is voted on by a majority vote. During the set up of the event, one of the members decides to hold the event at another location. During the event, someone gets hurt. The person making the decision on their own to move the event is now held liable, while the organization he/she belongs to is second on the list. Had the decision been voted on in front of the entire membership, no individual liability issue would prosecuted. Sometimes small decisions with minimal bearing on the outcome need not be voted on, such as "the order of who goes where on the trail ride, when they leave etc." However, reasonable care always needs to be expressed, without negligence. Any one person doing anything out of the normal expected procedure by their own decision, usually holds that individual personally liable for his/her actions.
OPINIONS VERSUS VOTES: Personal liability is contracted through the ACTIONS of a person (or multiple person's) individual decisions. OPINIONS not acted upon, does not necessarily constitute personal liability. Opinions other than majority voted and accepted issues, are libelous when they are construed as a direction, order, requirement or otherwise, and then carried out by the opinion maker, or someone else following those orders or directions.
WHEN TO HOLD A VOTE: Votes are not required for every issue that arises, however, those that include obvious liability potential should be first narrowed down by the council, brought to the general membership as an information discussion, then finalized, voted and tabled on a majority decision. Even if a majority of the club did not participate in the vote, as long as it was offered in a reasonable time frame and fashion, the resulting vote of those who participated, does constitute a majority decision.
EVENT LIABILITY: Any organization has to contend with liability and responsibility of the decision made, which could have direct or indirect affect on the well being of others involved, is what is the key concern to address.
APPLIED TO 4-WHEELING: The example below can be directly related to any organization's liability concerns, with a much easier understanding. Imagine the "party" being a trail ride event. Imagine the "person doing the inviting" as the host club, and the "building owner" as the land owner, and finally, the other "party goers" as club members. The "guest" would be depicted as the victim in this case, whether in the club or not.
AN EXAMPLE: ...If a person was invited to a private party, and he/she sprained an ankle on a step at the party, clearly, the person who extended the invitation would be most looked at as being responsible than any other superficial contributing factor, since if the guest was not invited, this would have never happened. Second on the list would be the hosts of the party, the owner of the property, and lastly, the other party goers attending. This is besides the actual cause of the incident.
THE OUTCOME: In the above scenario, the person that invited the guest (club), as well as the rest of the guests (members), would all be held liable. Since the location was private property, so would the home owner (land owner).
OPTIONS: If the place the party was held, happened to be a public place, normally open to that person anyway (no fees, requirements, membership, etc), then the property owner could be held harmless. If the party was open to the public, (again with no fees, requirements, membership, etc.) then the rest of the guests (members) would be held harmless, unless there was a presence of negligence and lack of reasonable care by any of the people involved.
ANOTHER DEFENSE: A way for the person doing the inviting (club) to defend themselves from being liable, is to express the event as "an informal meeting", rather than a controlled and organized event of performance or activity.
RELEASE OF LIABILITY: Waivers can help, especially in defense of a person wishing to cash in on other's misfortunes. Rather than challenging the courts over a sprained ankle, a person most likely will accept his/her mistake and be responsible for their own actions, rather than indemnifying others.
EVENT PREPARATION CONSIDERATIONS: The best way to prevent liability problems, is to cover every base...
1.) Hold the event on public land, where anyone could/would be there regardless.
2.) State the event itself as being an informal get together, rather than a "guided" trail ride, where the trail leader would be solely responsible for all those on that trail ride, as well as the rest of the organization would be, for that trail ride leader.
3.) Do not charge or hold any fee, requirement or qualification to attend. Again, this keeps an attendee from placing responsibility on those that "Invited" the guests.
4.) Refrain from having detailed schedules, guides, Instructions, Suggestions and required times that people have to be places. That identifies as a "requirement."
5.) Do not have prizes/trophies for feats or activities or otherwise relating to or being measured by a performance. This identifies a "competition" status and again, as a "requirement."
VEHICLE PROOF OF INSURANCE: One thing that can be very important... make sure the drivers have insurance on their trucks. Even though their policy does not condone off roading situations, IF a catastrophic tragedy occurs (someone getting killed), their insurnace company *would* be forced to pay, at least that one single time (then that person would probably never get inexpensive insurance again, but the bottom line is if the inusurance money was enough to cover the lawsuit, then the lawyers won't have to look further for the rest... in the direction of the hosting perosns and or club, or participants who were innocent bystanders.
Following these few guidelines goes a long way towards defending your liability involvement. Of course, reasonable care, responsibility and common sense makes up the majority of the necessary ingredients to a safe, and responsible trail ride.
Above and beyond all this, allowing everyone to contribute a vote, whether they do or not, keeps members from second guessing the decision later, when it's too late.
.. Be safe, and have fun!
