Risk & Business Magazine JGS Insurance Magazine Fall 2019 | Page 29

COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY
EACH OCCURRENCE LIMIT
This is the maximum that the insurer is
obligated to pay for any damages within
Coverage A and expenses within Coverage
C. Despite a separate General Aggregate
Limit for Products-Completed Operations,
all damages paid under Coverage A and all
expenses paid under Coverage C are subject
to the Each Occurrence Limit. For the
purpose of this article, an “occurrence” by
policy definition is defined as an accident,
including continuous or repeated exposure
to substantially the same general harmful
conditions.
An example of this would be a cheese
processor preparing a shipment improperly,
resulting in the sale of contaminated or
otherwise compromised cheese. As a result,
multiple people become ill. Each one of
those individuals then sues the company.
Does this count as multiple occurrences or
does it count as one? There are two views.
The first looks at the cause of the liability,
which would consider them all to be the
same occurrence. The second looks at the
effect, which would find each individual
injury to be a separate occurrence.
DAMAGE-TO-PREMISES-RENTED-TO-
YOU LIMIT
This separate limit applies to fire damage
to premises rented from a landlord by
the insured and to damage—regardless
of cause—to premises or their contents
occupied for seven days or less by the
insured. This limit applies to any premises
and is a sublimit of the Each Occurrence
limit. Payments under this coverage
reduce the Each Occurrence and General
Aggregate limits.
MEDICAL EXPENSE LIMIT
Medical Expenses are Coverage C, and they
are meant to pay for reasonable medical
treatments resulting from accidents or
injuries, regardless of who is at fault. Like
the Damage-to-Premises-Rented-to-You
Limit, payments under this coverage
reduces the Each Occurrence and General
Aggregate limits.
Understanding not only your CGL policy
but also how limits can come into play if a
claim is made are essential to successfully
protecting your organization from risk.
After all, having coverage is good, but
having the wrong understanding isn’t
going to help anyone. It should be more
than apparent that the way limits work
and connect to each other are complicated,
and having a professional there to help is
essential.
BY: GWENYTH P. LUU, CLCS
DIRECTOR - COMMERCIAL LINES
JGS INSURANCE
Gwenyth Luu helps organizations improve
their bottom line and lower their total cost
of risk by implementing the JGS Proactive
Service Platform. The JGS Proactive
Service Platform is an inclusive strategy
that focuses on primary cost drivers of
a risk management program. Gwenyth
helps businesses understand all of their
potential and actual costs and liabilities,
execute an actionable strategy, and deliver
superior client service and support. The
JGS Proactive Service Platform is driven
by continuous strategy and service
delivered on a daily basis throughout
the year. The service platform includes
risk control strategies, claims advocacy
and management, contract reviews and
insurance program design reviews.
29