Saleyard Public Liability for Australian Businesses: Slips, Stock and Bystander Injuries

Saleyards concentrate people, livestock and machinery into a small space on a single day. A look at where Public Liability claims arise for Australian livestock businesses, and how the policy responds when something goes wrong on sale day.

A saleyard on sale day concentrates more risk into a smaller space than almost anywhere else an agency operates. Members of the public, vendors, buyers, transport operators, yard staff and business representatives are all present at the same time, alongside several hundred or several thousand head of livestock. The physical environment – wet concrete, raised walkways, gates, races, scales, loading ramps – adds its own hazards.

Public Liability is the policy that responds when something on that day causes injury to a person or damage to someone else's property, and the business is alleged to be responsible.

What the business's Public Liability policy covers

Public Liability responds to third party injury and property damage caused by the business's activities. For a livestock business, those activities include drafting, weighing, penning, conducting the auction, handling stock through the ring, loading and unloading, and the business's general conduct around the yards. Where an agency representative's act or omission is alleged to have contributed to an injury – a gate left open, a direction given to a vendor or buyer, a stock movement managed in a particular way – Public Liability is generally the policy in play.

What Public Liability does not cover is injury to the business's own employees (that is workers compensation), damage to stock owned by the business itself (that is property cover), or the professional conduct of the auction or sale (that is Professional Indemnity).

The saleyard operator's role

Most regional saleyards are owned and operated by a council, a saleyard company or a livestock exchange. The operator carries its own Public Liability policy in respect of the yards themselves – the condition of the infrastructure, the walkways, the lighting, the safety of the physical environment. When a member of the public slips on a wet walkway, the first conversation is usually with the operator's insurer, not the business's.

“When a steer breaks from the drafting race and a bystander is hurt, the question is not who is at fault. It is whose policy answers the first phone call.”

Where the allegation specifically concerns the business's conduct – for example, the way stock was moved through a particular pen – the business's Public Liability becomes the relevant policy. In practice, both insurers are often involved while liability is investigated, and the matter is resolved between them.

Livestock-related bystander injuries

Livestock-related injuries to bystanders are the claim pattern most specific to a saleyard environment. A beast that breaks from the drafting race, a steer that turns in the ring, a horse that kicks at the rail, a sheep that escapes from a pen. The injury is usually to a vendor, a buyer or a member of the public who was present.

These claims are investigated against the business's conduct – whether the stock were handled appropriately, whether the relevant person was in a position they should not have been in, whether the business's representatives took reasonable steps to manage the risk. Public Liability funds the defence and, where appropriate, the settlement.

Slips, trips and falls

Slips, trips and falls remain the highest-frequency Public Liability claim in any saleyard environment. The defence almost always comes back to the condition of the surface, who controlled it, and what reasonable steps were taken to manage water, manure, lighting and signage. Where the business does not control the physical environment, the operator's policy is usually the primary responder, but the business can still be drawn in where a representative's conduct is alleged to have contributed.

On-property sales and clearing sales

Public Liability exposures change when the sale is held on a private property – an on-property bull sale, a clearing sale on a farm, an in-paddock auction. The saleyard operator's policy is no longer in the picture. The business is now operating on the vendor's property, and the vendor's farm liability policy, the business's Public Liability and any contractor cover all need to coordinate. We look at the business's policy specifically to make sure it responds to on-property sale activity without restriction.

What we look at when we review the policy for a livestock business

When we review a Public Liability program for a livestock business, the conversation focuses on a few specific items. Whether the policy responds to saleyard activity, on-property sales and clearing sales without restriction. Whether the limit is appropriate for the highest-risk day of the year, not the average. Whether the wording responds to allegations brought by vendors, buyers, members of the public and saleyard staff. Whether the business's Public Liability interacts cleanly with the saleyard operator's policy and the vendor's farm policy. And whether any business-owned equipment used at the yards – drafting gates, scales, vehicles – is properly addressed.

Sale day is the day the policy earns its keep. It is worth knowing in advance how it will respond.

If you would like a review of how Public Liability is currently arranged for your business's saleyard and on-property activity, we are happy to walk through it with you.