CASUALTY PROVISIONS · 5 MIN READ

Coverage A Exclusions From Intent to War

The first block of Coverage A exclusions polices moral hazard and coverage boundaries. Exclusion (a) bars bodily injury or property damage expected or intended from the standpoint of the insured, preserving coverage for reasonable force in defense of persons or property. Exclusion (b), Contractual Liability, bars liability assumed by contract — but carves back liability the insured would have even without the contract and liability assumed in an insured contract, and extends to reimbursing an indemnitee's defense costs in defined circumstances. Exclusion (c), Liquor Liability, applies only to insureds in the business of manufacturing, distributing, selling, serving, or furnishing alcohol — so host liquor liability for the office party remains covered, while a tavern needs the separate liquor liability form. Exclusions (d) and (e) push employee injuries to workers compensation and employers liability coverage, with a narrow carve-back for liability assumed under an insured contract. Exclusion (f), the pollution exclusion, is famously absolute — but it contains the hostile-fire carve-back: bodily injury or property damage from heat, smoke, or fumes of a hostile fire (one that becomes uncontrollable or breaks out from where it was intended to be) stays covered, so smoke damage from a malfunctioning space heater's fire is paid despite the pollution wording. Endorsements can go further in either direction: total pollution exclusions delete the remaining exceptions, while limited carve-back endorsements restore slices of coverage. Exclusion (g) removes aircraft, autos, and watercraft — the exposures belonging to aviation, auto, and marine policies — but preserves coverage for non-owned watercraft under 26 feet not used to carry persons or property for a charge, and for parking a non-owned auto. Because loading and unloading is defined as use of an auto, those injuries shift to the auto policy subject to the mechanical-device carve-out. Exclusion (h) similarly sends mobile equipment being transported or used in racing outside the form, and exclusion (i) eliminates war, civil war, insurrection, rebellion, and revolution — catastrophic, non-fortuitous risks the CGL cannot price — while ordinary riots remain covered absent a specific exclusion.