No license to operate any taxicab shall be issued or renewed by the City Auditor, and it shall be unlawful to operate any such taxicab or permit such to be operated unless and until the applicant shall provide to the City Manager a copy of a policy or policies of liability insurance issued by a responsible insurance company licensed to do business within the State, approved as to sufficiency by the City Manager and as to legality by the City Solicitor, providing indemnity for, or protection to, the insured against loss in the amount provided for in this section and agreeing to pay within the limits of the amounts fixed herein to any judgment creditor who shall have filed his suit or filed notice of a claim for such loss with the City Manager during the license year in which the injury occurred, or six months thereafter any final judgment rendered against the insured by reason of the liability of the insured to pay damages to others for bodily injuries, including death, at any time resulting therefrom, and for damages to or destruction of property sustained during the terms of the policy by any person other than the employees of the insured and resulting from the negligent operation, maintenance or use of such taxicabs.
The policy of insurance aforesaid and the bond given in lieu thereof, as hereinafter referred to, shall provide that in case the taxicab is operated, maintained or used with the consent or acquiescence of the owner, by one other than the owner, his agent or employee, and an injury results to person or property as indicated above, due to the negligent operation, maintenance or use of the taxicab, that the insurer or the obligors in the bond, as the case may be, shall pay to any judgment creditor of the person so maintaining, using or operating such taxicab, provided that the judgment creditor shall have filed his suit, or filed notice of claim for such loss in all respects as is provided for the judgment creditor of the insured in the foregoing paragraph.
The policy or policies of insurance, and the sureties hereinbefore required, shall be valid and effective for no less a period than that for which the license is issued.
The extent of the liability of the insured shall be, as to any one licensed taxicab, the sum of one million dollars ($1,000,000) on account of injury to, or death of, any one person in any one accident; and subject to such limit as respects injury to, or death of, one person, three million dollars ($3,000,000) on account of any one accident resulting in injury to, or death of, more than one person; and one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) on account of damage to property in any one accident.
In lieu of the policy or policies of insurance herein provided for, the applicant may furnish a commercial bond executed by a surety company, authorized to do business in the State, approved as to sufficiency by the City Manager and as to legality by the City Solicitor, holding and binding the principal and sureties to the same liability, and subject to the same conditions as in the case of policies of insurance provided for hereunder. It shall further be permissible for the applicant to furnish insurance as to damages for personal injuries, including death, and indemnity bond as to property damages, or vice versa.
Every such policy or certificate of insurance or bond shall contain a clause obligating the insurer or surety to give to the City Manager at least ten days' written notice before the cancellation, expiration, lapse or other termination of such insurance, or the expiration, withdrawal of the surety therefrom or the termination of such bond; and the license granted shall expire upon the termination of the insurance or bond, or upon the termination of the liability of the insurer or surety thereon, in accordance with such notice, unless a new policy or certificate of liability insurance or a new indemnity bond, approved as hereinbefore provided, shall be substituted therefor. Failure to give the notice required herein shall operate to continue the liability of the insurer or surety for the benefit of persons injured or damaged, as the policy or bond continued in full force or effect.
(Ord. 2016-132. Passed 10-24-16.)