THE CGL POLICY AND FAULTY WORKMANSHIP California Chief Justice Malcolm Lucas once opined, “No one knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men…but it’s all insured.” That is a typical viewpoint of most insureds…why does someone buy insurance if it doesn’t cover everything they do? We’re not talking about what I blogged about recently, “illusory coverage,” but rather about mainstream policies that cover a lot of things, but not everything. A couple of days ago, I received an email from my web site from a consumer who did not understand why a claim was denied by the CGL insurer of a contractor that did work for the consumer. The following is the email and an excerpt from my response.
Bill Wilson InsuranceCommentary.com
The inquiry: “Could I ask you an insurance question? A family owned carpet cleaning company cleaned my sofa and did damage to the sofa. I made a claim to their liability insurance company, and the company is claiming that the policy had an exception for ‘your work’. What is the purpose of liability insurance if it doesn’t cover damages as a result of the negligence of the insured? Any light you could shed on this would be appreciated. It seems unfair to both the insured as well as to me.”
