Earlier this week, a woman trying out a swing chair during the annual commercial design industry NeoCon convention and trade show in Chicago’s Merchandise Mart fell and sustained a fatal head injury. Though her death was ruled to be accidental after an autopsy, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration is beginning an investigation, and the president of the design firm where 57-year-old Jacqueline E. Albertine worked is expressing concern that the show didn’t have medical personnel on hand that could have treated her injuries sooner, according to this article in the Chicago Tribune.
While the results of the OSHA investigation won’t be known for months, the tragedy emphasizes the importance of being prepared for anything that could happen at your events—even accidents that occur during normal, everyday activities at your meeting that don’t appear to bear any unusual risk that would require a waiver or release.
As meeting industry attorney Joshua Grimes, Esq., with Grimes Law Offices, says, “These kinds of incidents illustrate the fact that freak accidents happen in everyday life—and during meetings and conventions. The activity in which someone is injured can appear to be perfectly safe—there doesn’t need to be evidence of a defect or unusual risk.”
He offered these three reminders:
• Everyone who’s is involved in a meeting must have insurance. This includes not just the hotel or convention center, but every place your group will be going, says Grimes. For example, some groups now offer unusual dining experiences, such as going to the home of a personal chef for a special meal. “Even in those situations, the person hosting should have insurance, because you never know what could happen.”
• Be diligent about performing the necessary duty of care. “Hindsight is always 20:20,” says Grimes. A personal injury lawyer could claim that the meeting organizer, the employer of the injured person, the venue, and everyone else involved should have anticipated the risk of injury. Best practice is to investigate everything involved in your event for the possibility of causing someone harm, in addition to making sure everyone has the appropriate insurance. Also, if anything is deemed potentially hazardous, ensure that there are waivers and releases for taking part in that activity. “If a defect is found in the object that caused the injury, that could create more liability issues,” he adds.
• Companies must be careful to properly characterize who is an employee and who is a contractor. If a victim is an employee, survivors receive workers compensation death benefits and cannot sue the employer, he says. “If the victim is an independent contractor, survivors wouldn’t get any death benefits from the company, which makes it more likely that they would sue the convention organizer and others.”
Also, if it comes out that the victim who was employed as a contractor should have been characterized as an employee, “there could be real liability for the company that used the contractor’s services—and increased risk of a lawsuit arising from that person’s death,” says Grimes. “And the government could go after that company for back taxes and penalties.”
