Masonry Magazine January 1968 Page.28
What? Not Covered!
(Continued from page 26)
STATUTES OF LIMITATIONS
While most liability policies specify no definite period of time for submission of claims, filing suit or applying for adjustment of claims before Industrial Commissions or Boards, each state does have such limitations under law. In discussing no coverage situations, then, we can hardly ignore so important a point, although they normally affect the claimant more than the insured.
For example, bodily injury claims are outlawed by statute unless tort action is started within two years in Illinois, three years in New York and six years in Minnesota. Property damage claims carry similar limitations of five years in Illinois, three years in New York and six years in Mississippi.
Application for formal adjustment of Workmen's Compensation claims must be filed with the state Industrial Commission within one year of the accident (or last compensation payment) in Illinois; two years is the limit in New York, ninety days in New Hampshire.
There are a good many other time limitations built into the Workmen's Compensation Acts of each state, particularly as respects hernias and certain other injuries, too numerous and varied to enumerate here. It would pay any employer to ask about such limiting statutes in his state of operations, both from the standpoint of protection against claims and dealing fairly with injured parties.
POLICY LIMITS
We cannot deal with limitations and exclusions in these policy forms without mentioning the most obvious limitation of all, the specific dollar amount purchased by the insured, beyond which there is no coverage.
Comprehensive General Liability policies commonly specify separate limits applicable to Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability. In the case of the former, we find one limit per person injured, another per occurrence regardless of the number of people injured and a third aggregate limit for any number of Bodily Injury claims arising from the Completed Operations and Products hazards during the policy year.
Property damage coverage carries a limit per occurrence, then another aggregate limit applying separately to the hazards of (a) Operations Liability, (b) Independent Contractors Protective Liability, (c) Completed Operations Products Liability and (d) Contractual Liability during the policy year. Such aggregate Property Damage limits apply separately, however, to each project away from the insured's owned or rented premises.
Sometimes the policy is written so that Bodily Injury and Property Damage are subject to a Combined Single Limit per occurrence, allowing for somewhat more flexibility as to how the limits are applied.
Comprehensive Automobile Liability policies specify separate limits applicable to Bodily Injury and Property Damage Liability, one limit per person injured, another per occurrence regardless of number of people injured, and a third for property damage caused by one occurrence.
Umbrella Excess Liability policies generally specify just one Combined Single Limit per occurrence, but may also be subject to aggregate limits applicable to all occurrences during the policy year.
LATE REPORTS OF ACCIDENT
Sprinkled throughout liability policies is a requirement that the insured give formal notice of claim to the insurance carrier as soon as practicable, an obvious requisite of efficient claim investigation and handling. By implication, this means promptly after the insured first has knowledge of a claim, although this could conceivably be a long time after the claimed accident itself.
Failure to do so may seriously inhibit your carrier's ability to investigate at all and further jeopardize their chances of arriving at a reasonable settlement. The company has a right to deny coverage under such circumstances.
It is always best in this respect to err on the side of reporting too much rather than too little. Notify your insurance representative at the first knowledge of any potential claim, leaving it to his judgement whether it is the opportune time to file a formal report, under which policies, etc. This will tend to convey a healthy feeling of loss control, professionalism in recognition of possible claims and give your carrier a big jump on investigation while all the evidence is available, the facts fresh in everyone's mind.
PUNITIVE DAMAGES
The primary purpose of imposing punitive damages on someone is to (1) punish him for wrongdoing and (2) to establish a deterrent to repetition of the offense by others. With this in mind, it becomes a moot question whether a liability insurance policy has any business covering such penalties, then passing the settlement costs back to the insurance-buying public which was perhaps the party offended in the first place and presumably innocent of wrongdoing.
Whether the new liability policy forms do, in fact, cover such damages is not easily answerable because state laws differ so widely in this respect and because insurance carriers have adopted no discernible uniform position. Fortunately, the problem does not arise too often because penalties are commonly granted as part of the overall injury award to a plaintiff rather than split apart.
While wary of the myriad of state exceptions via masonry
Nov./Dec., 1968