IMPORTANT UPDATE – Hiring or loaning your school buses

You may well have seen the outcome of the case of Old Mutual Insurance v. The Board of Directors, Oder Boys Special School. This may have an impact on your own vehicle insurances, so we urge you to consider this going forwards.

Whilst we do not have the full court transcript, it would appear that the school bus owned by the defendant, was hired or loaned out to a third party. There was a serious accident, and several passengers were injured resulting in the school and the schools insurers being sued by the injured parties for negligence. Following a long court process, the ruling judge determined that there was no legal liability on the Insurer (Old Mutual) as the bus was not being driven for its disclosed purposes, that of a school bus.

We do not know enough of the case or the relative insurance policy to comment on the decision, but as we do arrange many insurances for school buses and vehicles, we do feel it is important to notify you of this and to ensure that you liaise with us, should you loan or hire your vehicle to any third party. We will then discuss your requirements with the relevant insurer.

We are presently discussing with our main insurance partners a way around this rather technical issue and will report back in due course. In the meantime, please contact us for further information.