It is well known that sports teams, leagues and players often have insurance to cover risks. In the past, I represented an insurer regarding coverage or non-coverage for a sports league strike. An ancillary question is the duty or not of an insurance broker.

A few inside baseball concepts here. First, an insurance agent is most often construed to be the agent of the insurer and is often an employee of the insurer. A broker is independent, presents risks to insurance companies and is either considered to be the agent of the insured or an independent intermediary. In Moje v. Federal Hockey League LLC et al., a minor league hockey league faced suit involving injury to a blinded fan. The fan took a default judgment against the league. The victim sued the broker and so far the broker has won on the grounds that the injured person was not signatory to the insurance policy and the policy did not cover the risk.

Brokers are often sued for malpractice on the grounds that they should have known that an insured should have particular coverage. Truth be told, the brokers usually win. Absent explicit instructions, it is too easy for an insured to say after the fact that they had asked for certain risks to be covered. Unlimited "he said, she said" in this arena would make it impossible for brokers to do business.

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