[Dixielandjazz] Re: insurance

[TCASHWIGG at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/11/04 5:38:06 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu writes:

> 
>    Hey!  Down here!  Yes, AFTER the message! (Whew...)
>    What about putting the shoe on the other foot?  What if your 
> sousaphone (unlikely enough) sustained major life-threatening 
> injuries from the fan (circular rotating, not square folding-chair 
> sitting)?
>    Your point is a good one, and i think insurance is a good option. 
> But are musical venues required to (or should they) carry insurance 
> also for injury to persons or instruments?  Is it gig- (and/or 
> alcohol-) induced folly to contemplate such an eventuality?
> 
>    Dan
> 
> (whose sousaphones take their own chances)
> 

Well, for what it's worth guys, and probably not much in our cockamamie world 
of non reality and always pass the buck if you possibly can.

Insurance for the patrons and employees of ANY business is a legitimate 
business expense for the proprietor and it should be covered fully in his own 
Liability policy, Period.

Forcing employees to pay for additional insurance is just plain BS, we 
started seeing this kind of pass the buck crap when the Liability Insurance rates 
skyrocketed a few years ago for events and Chambers of Commerce and Cities etc.  
Many cities in the USA opted out of the Liability Insurance premium purchase 
game, and started a process known as Self Insured, which meant that they 
simply said we have enough money to take the chance and defend ourselves in the 
unlikely event that anybody really does sue us for something.

At the same time they in their inherently passed on wisdom from their lawyers 
started requiring all the little guys to purchase individual and separate 
Liability insurance policies and name them as additional insureds against any 
possible lawsuits for damned near anything.

such as, if an attendee drinks too much in the hot sun and eats at a Bar B 
Que stand and then gets sick and wants to sue the city for food poisoning the 
liability is simply passed down to the Bar B Que stand, if he gets involved in a 
traffic accident on the way home from the event and is cited for drunk 
driving they simply sue the local Rotary or Lions Club who allegedly sold him the 
beer that got him drunk and on an on and on, causing tremendous litigation for 
his persistent lawyers looking for the deepest pockets to extract some money 
from.

Now as for the guy who caught Richard Steven's wayward Fan Blade,  did he at 
least come up and ask for your autograph on it, Hell that was a Happening and 
worthy of your suing him for royalties for all the stores he told about the 
incident the rest of his life, and God forbid he wrote about it in a Book and 
did not give you credit for doing it.  

Good God! Richard find the dude and sue him, you may have retirement income 
coming, :)))


I once broke a drumstick during a show and a portion of it flew out into the 
audience and hit some guy on the forehead, he was upset for a minute and came 
up to the band stand with it in his hand shouting that I should be more 
careful because I could have put his eye out with that stick.  I assured him that I 
was an expert at broken stick placement and that if I had actually intended to 
hit him in the eye I damned sure would have done so, and that I was only 
trying to get his attention and make him stop talking so loudly that he was 
disturbing the other patrons who were trying to listen, I also explained to him that 
life is unfair and SHIT Happens, today must have just been his lucky day, and 
he should have been grateful that is just a little bad Shit that happened to 
him, I mean man you didn't get hit by a fast moving train or anything life 
threatening,  he laughed his butt off and asked me to autograph the drumstick for 
him as a souvenir,  I was all too happy to do so and signed Buddy Rich's name 
to it.   So sue me I need the publicity.   And yes Buddy had been dead for at 
least three years by then.  :))

Now before any of you get stirred up over my sense of humor, be assured that 
if the man had actually been injured other than his pride I would have been 
the first one off the bandstand to go to his aid and get him immediate medical 
attention and would also have paid for it if I had caused the problem and 
injury.  However I do have four drummers in the band and I would have found a way 
to blame it on one of the other guys, :))  Upon the advise of my attorney of 
course, and he would have been justly disciplined and never shown up in the band 
lineup again in that State. :))    Especially after I proved that he had 
actually thrown the stick at me and missed.  :))

Cheers,

Tom Wiggins
Just as happy as if I had good sense.