Posted: October 12th, 2016

identify risks associated with the client’s plans, actions or omissions that could constitute the tort of negligence under those activities, and any mitigations the Insurance Company might insist the client take to avoid legal actions

Questions: 1. You are working as a ‘risks analyst’ for a major Insurance company. You have been assigned to help generate a risk profile for a client of the firm who is looking for some additional insurance. The client in question owns an emu farm. She uses her herd of emu’s to produce emu eggs, emu meat, as well as some emu feather clothing accessories and decorations. The emu farm also boasts an emu themed restaurant/bar. The client is interested in expanding her business to include facilitating larger social events. The client is thinking about hosting/catering weddings, concerts, and other medium scale gatherings on her property. The client is also an amateur ‘Zorbing’ enthusiast, and intends on hosting private zorbing tournaments and parties. The client holds a liquor license, and therefore be able to include bartending and beer/liquor sales with her planned hosting services, although the client has indicated that any parties associated with his ‘zorbing’ club would be strictly private and BYOB. The emu farm and attached properties are located approximately 50 minutes outside Ottawa. The client has ample parking on premises, but there is no local bus service available. The team doing the risk analysis have experts looking into several types of risk they are familiar with (how much lighting is appropriate, whether the tent building the client is using is up to safety standards, health standards for bathrooms), however, they have asked you to tackle the question of ‘commercial and social host liability.’ They have asked you to provide an analysis of the potential hosting scenarios and consider if a duty of care might be identified under tort law in any of the hosting situations being considered, and the standards of care associated with such duties. Specifically, they would like you to identify risks associated with the client’s plans, actions or omissions that could constitute the tort of negligence under those activities, and any mitigations the Insurance Company might insist the client take to avoid legal actions. They have asked that you carefully explain any underlying legal principles, and reference any appropriate supporting case law.