Homeowners’ policy does not cover insured as fitness instructor (US)

Patrick Bracher from Norton Rose Fulbright.

An Arizona appeals court has ruled that a claim by a woman who had a stroke during a fitness-club workout is not covered by the instructor’s homeowners’ insurance policy because the business exemption applied.

When the member of the fitness-club sued her instructor, the instructor made a claim under the homeowners’ policy but the policy excluded cover for activities while the insured was engaged in a ‘trade, profession or occupation’.

The evidence was that although the insured, who was a close friend of the owner of the club, was not paid to lead the class she was intimately involved in the club’s operation and had loaned a significant sum for renovations. The exemption applied if there was the presence of both continuity and a profit motive. Both were present in the instructor’s involvement with the fitness-club. The insurers did not have to indemnify the instructor.

[The case is Country Mutual Insurance Co v Melissa Lawson, case number 2 CA-CV 2016-0154, in the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two]

First published by Financial Institutions Legal Snapshot.