Sell food to aid charity--liability insurance?

sardarji

I sell jam--a few hundred pounds worth each year--passing every penny of the proceeds on to a local charity. BUT the local district council, which runs one small market where I sell, now insists that ...

(A) I MUST have public liability insurance (which I don't); because, they claim...
(B) if any buyer suffers ill-effects from my jams, THEY, the council---not just I myself--could be sued.

I accept that I might be WISE to have such insurance. And I don't dispute (point [a]) their right to insist on whatever conditions they choose to impose on stall-holders. BUT, a simply legal question which I hope some lawyer can answer: yes or no, the council, runners of the market, could be sued because of a fault in the goods, my jam, sold by a stall holder who (and whose jam) is entirely independent of that council and of officials concerned in running the market?

InsideInsurance

There is always the outside chance that if the stall holder is unable to meet their liability that the claimant may decide to pursue the owners of the market. If they would win or not is another matter but defending claims is an expensive business which you can rarely recover full costs for.

When I worked for an asset leasing company they themselves bought liability insurance because of the outside chance that the leaser of the vehicle had breached their terms and didnt have insurance nor the means to cover third party losses caused by them using the asset that the finance company as the legal owners of the asset could be pursued.

sardarji

Thank you II. Sounds truly weird to me. If I take my normally and visibly well-behaved spaniel--not a rottweiler!--to a 'garden open' afternoon at some mansion, and the dog after all bites someone, could the victim sue not just me (fair enough) but the mansion-owner? Compensation culture run mad, I'd think, but if it has maybe it has. Any lawyer who can give advice on my original query?

InsideInsurance

Its a quirk, and arguably benefit, of the English legal system (as in the system not the country, others use the same system) in that things are not all defined by statute and that anyone can take anyone to court.

It means our legal system can be much more dynamic because judges make rulings much more swiftly than parliament create/ amend laws. The down side is that you can sue the open garden afternoon that it was negligent to allow non-guide dogs in as it was reasonably foreseeable that a brass band would agitate animals and therefore a bite may happen.

Whilst they are probably unlikely to succeed in the case it is unlikely to be considered so vexatious that special case be made on defense costs for the defendant and so they'd be out of pocket on costs.

sarahgoodwin

I would tell the council that they can shove it, and do the charity somewhere else

rs65

I very much doubt that the council could be held responsible for something a stallholder sold. I can understand PL in connection with loss or injury caused by the presence of the stall but not in relation to products sold.

dacouch

Have a look at the Market Trade Associations in this google search, you should be able to get cover for about £60 through them

https://www.google.co.uk/#q=market+traders+association+insurance