There's a lot of excellent discussion in the comments on who should ultimately pay. One interesting aspect: if insurance gets too high, it incentivises corporations themselves to be the insurer. I mean the literal corporate limited liability. Would they not be incentivised to put each major asset into its own corporation, and in the event of a major loss that corporation becomes bankrupt?
Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
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Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#122There's a lot of excellent discussion in the comments on who should ultimately pay. One interesting aspect: if insurance gets too high, it incentivises corporations themselves to be the insurer. I mean the literal corporate limited liability. Would they not be incentivised to put each major asset into its own corporation, and in the event of a major loss that corporation becomes bankrupt?
Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a former property insurance broker whose clients had big claims ($100Mish) and worked around people who handled the real big claims ($1B+), I can't really tell you with any specificity of how this will play out. All I know is that it will be a huge mess, and the lawyers will argue in court for several years. Ultimately, someone will have to pay to rebuild the bridge. In the event of really big claims, it almost al…
I can tell you how is going to play out. The people with less money for lawyers will be held liable. Normally the captain.
Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#124There's a lot of excellent discussion in the comments on who should ultimately pay. One interesting aspect: if insurance gets too high, it incentivises corporations themselves to be the insurer. I mean the literal corporate limited liability. Would they not be incentivised to put each major asset into its own corporation, and in the event of a major loss that corporation becomes bankrupt?
Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that the insurers like these situations - it makes it obvious how important good insurance is and sales go up. The individual impact seems large to the layperson but is within the models of the insurance and reinsurance companies over time.
There is an analogous situation in (e.g. sports) betting. Every now and then someone places a really long bet on something like Leicester winning the Premiership and then gets a collosal payout. Inevitably there's some naive speculation that the betting shop will be very unhappy with this. In reality theae u likely events happen relatively infrequently (often disproportionately to even their long odds) and the public…
Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is an analogous situation in (e.g. sports) betting. Every now and then someone places a really long bet on something like Leicester winning the Premiership and then gets a collosal payout. Inevitably there's some naive speculation that the betting shop will be very unhappy with this. In reality theae u likely events happen relatively infrequently (often disproportionately to even their long odds) and the public…
Chris Moneymaker* winning the 2003 World Series of Poker main event after winning his entry in an $86 online qualifying tournament (rather than paying the $10K entry fee from his own pocket) was the biggest thing that could have happened for poker. * - Yes, that's really his name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Moneymaker
Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#127Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#128It seems like even modest defenses to slow the ship or push some energy aside could have mitigated a collapse.
Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
I suspect the winning bridge design in Baltimore is going to include massive starlings, beyond what is normal, or some other mitigation factor for the last disaster. So maybe earthquake-proofing is a fair comparison, cost-wise.
They’re just going to put more dolphins around the pylons. They had a few already but they were poorly placed and had an opening a container ship could slip through.
Re: Dali owner file petition to cap liability in Baltimore bridge collapse at $43.7M
#130Is there not some responsibility on the US govt to reasonably protect its infrastructure in a common maritime path? The harbor long preceded the bridge, and when the bridge was constructed, the harbor had massive container ships moving in and out. No dolphins or starlings around a single point of failure for an entire bridge span? Whole a bridge collapse like this is rare, bridge strikes are not uncommon. It seems li…