A survey reaches further than many assume
The Oberlandesgericht Schleswig, a German court of appeal, ruled that a surveyor can be liable to an insurer that never commissioned his report. The case came from the motor sector and still concerns boating.
Law NAMMERT Assekuradeur GmbH
The facts are quickly told. After an accident the injured party commissioned a surveyor to assess the value. He put the salvage value at 850 euro and she sold at that price. The other side liability insurer settled the claim and also paid the surveyor fee. It later turned out that the salvage value was around 6,200 euro.
The insurer pursued the surveyor, and the Oberlandesgericht Schleswig agreed. The reasoning goes beyond the individual case. A damage report is plainly also produced for the purpose of settlement. The contract between surveyor and client therefore carries a protective effect in favour of the insurer, even though the insurer never contracted with the surveyor. The fact that the fee had already been paid did not help him, and recovery of that fee was part of the proceedings too.
The decision concerns a motor vehicle surveyor. The thought transfers, because the constellation in boating is identical. A surveyor assesses the damage, the salvage value or the market value of a boat, and an insurer pays on that basis.
Readers in common law jurisdictions will know the same question under a different label. There it appears as a duty of care towards a third party who was always the intended reader of the report. The German court reached its result through contract rather than tort, but the practical effect is the same.
What this means for owners
This is no reason to distrust surveyors, rather the opposite. A careful report protects everyone involved in the end, the surveyor included. For owners the ruling means mainly one thing: anyone submitting a valuation should know what the figures in it rest on. This text is our reading of the case and not legal advice.
This paragraph is our view as an underwriting agency, not part of the news. What your own policy covers is written in your own terms; when in doubt, call us.
Where this comes from
The text above is our own. The sources listed supplied the facts and the figures, not the wording.