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California Riding Magazine • May, 2010 Emergency! Emergency! by Polly Hey Panos, of Hey & Hey Attorneys at Law |
There are two types of emergency situations trainers would like to avoid, those involving an injury to a student and those involving an injury to a horse. Unfortunately, in our sport even the most conscientious trainer runs into these situations at some point. How a trainer reacts to them can mean the difference between having a successful business or having no business at all. Many trainers have students sign liability waivers yet they fail to obtain a consent form to perform emergency medical treatment. A minor cannot legally give consent for medical procedures. Suppose you are teaching a group lesson and one of the horses spooks and its rider, a child, falls off, gets injured and needs medical attention. You cannot reach the parents on their cell phone, and the local emergency center won’t treat the child because you do not have a consent form authorizing medical treatment. We advise all of our clients to have all parents or guardians sign a consent form, preferably notarized, that authorizes medical treatment of the minor child and provides all health insurance information. Horse injuries, whether large or small, should be approached with caution by the trainer. Several issues can arise when a horse is injured. First, if the injury requires immediate emergency care, such as surgery, the trainer needs to know how the owner wishes to handle the situation. While some owners are willing to spend every last penny on their horse, others might not be able to or want to spend their money that way. If the trainer goes ahead with expensive procedures without the owner’s consent, the trainer could be on the line for the veterinary bills. We recommend trainers place an emergency consent clause in their training agreement which provides the type of care the horse should receive if the owner cannot be reached and if there are any monetary limits on the cost of veterinary care. Mortality Matters A second issue trainers need to be aware of is the proper time to notify the horse’s mortality insurance carrier. Many people believe they can wait until after their horse has been treated to notify their insurance carrier. However, many insurance companies require that notification be made before treatment. A recent case illustrates this point. An owner had a colt that was insured. The colt went lame, and the vet determined that there was a bone fracture in the hock that required surgery. The owner notified the insurance carrier, and received written confirmation that they could proceed with the surgery. A few weeks later an infection developed due to the surgery. After a month of trying to beat the infection, the owner, trainer and vet determined that the colt was suffering, was losing weight and was chronically lame due to the infection. The owner called the local agent for the insurance carrier, notified them of the proposed euthanasia and the insurance agent agreed to it. When the owner put a claim in for the mortality insurance, the insurance company denied the claim because they were not told of the infection at the time it arose. Our recommendation to trainers is to be aware of which horses in the barn are insured, have copies of the policies and telephone numbers to call if an emergency arises, and know the procedure for when an insurance carrier needs to be notified. Many times an owner may not know the nuances of their policy and they rely on their trainer to take care of their horse and their interests. If you have questions, Polly Hey Panos can be reached at 650-216-6012 or at polly@blueribbonlaw.com.
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