Construction, Energy and Engineering SIG Sessions
CPA Model Conditions of Hire/Contract Lift Conditions
A failure to incorporate Construction Plant Hire Association Model Conditions into contracts for the hire of plant can cause significant losses for plant owners and their Insurers, according to Cunningham Lindsey International’s Marcus Gresham.
Mr Gresham guided members of the CILA Construction Energy and Engineering SIG through examples of major incidents involving constructional plant such as tower crane collapses, which have resulted in a variety of losses, including third party catastrophic injury and significant property damage.
He also pointed out that all too often, the Insurers of plant hirers accept that CPA conditions applied to a particular hire without undertaking appropriate enquiries to verify the position. “I’ve lost count of the number of times people have said this is a CPA hire and in fact it’s nothing of the sort. You cannot just take for granted what you are told; you have to see what the documentation says. Some plant owners are not very good at making sure CPA conditions are incorporated into a hire”, said Mr Gresham, “they often won’t communicate the full extent of the onerous nature of CPA conditions”.
Clauses
Referring to specific Clauses in the CPA Conditions, Mr Gresham gave some pertinent examples of how they provide significant protection to plant owners. He noted Clause 5(b) which requires the hirer to take all reasonable steps to keep himself acquainted with the condition of self-drive plant which is on hire to him and stipulates that the hirer is solely responsible for damage, loss or accident if he continues to use plant which he knows to be in an unsafe or unsatisfactory condition.
“There’s a fantastic case that illustrates this; that of USA –v- ARC Construction Ltd (1991)”, said Mr Gresham. “This case arose out of an incident at RAF Alconbury, where a pilot was taxi-ing his plane across the runway and he spotted a tractor careering towards his position. No one was in the tractor’s cab, and its driver was in fact chasing after the runaway machine on foot. Needless to say an accident occurred when the plant hit the plane”.
“It was found that the tractor had a defective handbrake. It was supplied by a plant owner who knew that the machine had this problem. The hirer’s site supervisors knew about the problem, as did the hirer’s operator. Nevertheless, they continued to use the plant. Because it was a CPA hire, the plant owners escaped all liability and it was the hirers alone who had to pay damages to the USA”.
Ralph Savage