Riggers Liability

Crane operators, riggers, millwrights, and steel erectors routinely handle extremely valuable third-party property — think of a $1.5 million chiller being hoisted onto a roof or a transformer being set on a pad. Riggers liability is the inland marine coverage that pays when the insured is legally responsible for damaging that property while it is being lifted, rigged, or moved. It exists because the load, during the lift, is squarely within the insured's care, custody, and control — an exposure that standard liability policies specifically refuse to cover.

This is critical for a small contractor because a commercial general liability policy contains a care, custody, and control exclusion that bars coverage for damage to property the insured is working on or handling. Without riggers liability, a dropped, tipped, or struck load leaves the contractor personally exposed to the full value of the customer's property. Riggers liability responds to exactly those events — the crane operator who drops a rooftop unit, the rigger whose chain fails, the millwright who bangs a machine into a wall while positioning it — up to the limit purchased for each lift.

A useful nuance is to keep two ideas separate: riggers liability covers the insured's legal liability for others' property being lifted, while physical-damage coverage on the crane itself insures the insured's own equipment. High-value or single-item lifts are often scheduled with a specific per-lift limit so the coverage is adequate for the biggest job. The concept is closely analogous to on-hook coverage for tow operators, which similarly protects a customer's vehicle while it is in tow, and to warehouse legal liability for stored goods.