Who pays for damage caused by common property?

An owner’s car was recently damaged by the common property automatic garage door as it closed on the car’s bumper. Apparently the sensors did not detect that the car was still in range of the door as most of the car had passed through, the bumper part being just out of range of the sensor. The owner submitted a claim to the body corporate’s insurance company to repay the excess he had to pay after claiming through his own insurer. The body corporate insurance company declined the claim, stating there was no negligence. The executive committee has now been asked to vote on whether we should reimburse the owner. To complicate matters the owner is a member of the executive committee (but is not obviously being part of the decision as to whether to pay or not). One executive committee member (who is a lawyer) states it is a matter to be left to the insurers to decide, the body corporate can only pay for damage caused by negligence and as this is not a case of negligence it would have to be an “ex gratia” payment, which the executive committee is not allowed to make (and if it was, would not look good as the claimant is an exec committee member, and may set a precedent).  I feel that as the damage was caused by common property at no fault of the owner, we should pay. Can you advise what is the correct action? Thank you!