Jury: Water park gets no insurance

COEUR d'ALENE - Travelers insurance company will not serve as a lifeguard to keep a bankrupt Coeur d'Alene water park from drowning.

Last week, a U.S. District Court jury in Coeur d'Alene determined that the insurance company is not responsible for a claim stemming from a 2011 vandalism incident.

Throughout the trial, attorneys for Wild Waters, the defendants in the case, attempted to prove that a vacancy clause in a commercial property policy issued by Travelers was not applicable. If the jury had agreed, Travelers would have been responsible for paying the insurance claim. The amount was not disclosed.

"In 2010, for the first time, Mr. Lavin (Stacey Lavin, part-owner and operator of the park) called Avista and had the electricity service turned off," Ron Clark, the attorney representing Travelers, said in his opening arguments. "And it hasn't been turned on since."

The fact that Wild Waters did not open its doors for two seasons, according to Clark, triggered the vacancy clause of the commercial property insurance contract.

"It's a standard," Clark said of the clause. "In commercial property insurance, they are intending to insure active businesses."

Clark added that in each of the three years Travelers provided Wild Waters with commercial property insurance, the vacancy clause of the contract remained the same.

"When they deviate from their customary operations, they can be considered vacant," Clark said. "That's what happened here."

In 2011, when Wild Waters failed to open for the second season in a row, Clark said Tim Warner, a third-party insurance broker who purchased a variety of insurance policies for the water park, failed to inform Travelers that they would not be opening.

Mike Ramsden, who represented Wild Waters during the case, attempted to show the jury that Warner was not acting as a representative for the water park, but for insurance companies such as Travelers, during the years he sold them policies. This, according to Ramsden, meant that Warner was not up-front with Wild Waters about the vacancy clause coming into effect.

Ramsden also contended that Lavin, part-owner and operator of the park, intended to open during both the 2010 and 2011 seasons. He added that although Lavin would "admit that there was always trouble paying the bills," it was two unusually wet spring seasons that kept the park from opening, not a lack of funds.