Campus Protests: Are You Covered By Renters Insurance?
To date, every campus protest and direct action carried out at Mizzou and schools to which the wave spread has been peaceful, with no injuries, property damage, or other problems.
These protests are, by and large, being carried out in an appropriate fashion and are protected under the Constitution. We respect the protesters, and somewhat more so because they have refrained from the escalation and violence that so often mars such actions.
But the Concerned Students must know that not everyone is as cool and level-headed as they are, and so it forces one to ask the question if there is a campus protest over some issue and it turns violent, or otherwise goes south, and there is damage to your property as a result, are you covered?
Does Renters Insurance Cover Personal Property Damaged By Campus Protests?
Yes. One of the perils insured against with respect to your personal property is “riot or civil commotion.”
Under normal circumstances, you would need to have a “covered peril” cause damage to your property. An example might be a fire, which caused the loss. Your television falling off the wall, however, is not covered because “falling off the wall” is not a covered peril on personal property.
Riot or Civil Commotion is an interesting peril, because it’s generally held more broadly than other perils are. While it’s kind of a silly example, let’s imagine an angry mob of thirty-something soccer moms who are protesting because they don’t think their kids get enough water during their soccer games.
To make their point, these thousand people have decided to run through the streets of Duluth, MN with large squirt guns, shooting water at whatever they can in order to make their point. That’s probably not a peaceful protest, though water is generally pretty harmless.
However, your window is open, and this squirt gun army misses the person they’re shooting at. They shoot straight through your window and fifteen squirt guns converge on your new television. There’s a loud pop, and your TV is now a very expensive paperweight.
Do you have coverage? Probably. That sounds a great deal like a riot or civil commotion. One of the reasons it’s a great idea to have renters insurance is that such unpredictable events can be covered.
Is Liability For Participation In A Demonstration Covered By Renters Insurance?
Are you covered for liability if you cause bodily injury or property damage during a protest?
If it’s a peaceful protest, and you’re just blocking campus, and someone trips over you and falls and is injured, you might well have coverage.
The minute that it ceases to be a peaceful protest and you are involved in a criminal activity, coverage would likely not be available. Criminal activity is always going to be excluded from liability.
If you provably are “just there” and you are not the one causing damage, but someone falls over you and is injured, there may have coverage, but you’d have to establish that you were in no way participating in causing the property damage, for instance.
The vast majority of campus protests are peaceful, and we respect the fact that they’ve remained that way. But all it takes is one person with bad judgement to turn a peaceful protest into a destructive scene, so you’re better off being protected.
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Photo Credit: Don Graham Grand Tetons, WY 2011 CC BY SA 2.0