# COMMERCIAL GENERAL LIABILITY INSURANCE

## Important Notice to Policyholders

This pamphlet is not your policy. It merely describes some of the major features of the new Commercial General Liability policy. READ YOUR POLICY CAREFULLY to determine rights, duties, and what is and is not covered. Only the provisions of your policy determine the scope of your insurance protection.

Policies providing general liability coverage have been revised. They are printed in a new format, and they contain some coverage changes.

There are two versions of the new Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy: "occurrence" (CG 00 01) and "claims-made" (CG 00 02). The differences between the two versions and some other major features of the new CGL policies are highlighted in this pamphlet.

**SOME MAJOR CHANGES INTRODUCED BY THE NEW POLICY—BOTH "OCCURRENCE" AND "CLAIMS-MADE" VERSIONS—INCLUDE:**

- **Scope of Coverage:** The new policy incorporates the coverages most commonly sought in the marketplace. Previously, many of these coverages were provided only by special forms and endorsements. Now they are built right into the basic policy.
- **Limits of Insurance:** Aggregate limits are now placed over all coverages to fix the absolute maximum we will pay under the policy for total damages and medical expenses. One aggregate limit applies to coverage for your products and completed work, and a second aggregate limit applies to all the other coverages. (Previously, aggregate limits applied to several individual coverages, but not to the entire scope of coverage.) Beneath these aggregates are "per occurrence" limits and several other sublimits. See Section III of your policy for details.
- **Pollution Liability:** The new policies do not cover this liability if the pollutants escape from your premises or a waste disposal or treatment facility. (The exclusion in the previous policy did not apply to "sudden and accidental" emissions of pollutants; the new exclusion does not have this exception.) Certain pollution exposures away from your premises—including many that arise out of your products or your work—are covered regardless of whether the emission was "sudden" or not. See exclusion f. under Coverage A. for details.

**"OCCURRENCE" VS. "CLAIMS-MADE":**

Whether the policy you have purchased is the new "occurrence" version or the new "claims-made" version, there is no difference in the kinds of injury and damage covered. Claims for damages may be assigned to different policy periods, however, depending on which version of the policy you have purchased.

Coverage A in the "occurrence" version provides coverage for liability because of bodily injury and property damage that occurs during the policy period, no matter when the claim is made, just like the previous policy.

Coverage A in the "claims-made" version provides coverage for liability because of bodily injury and property damage if the claim for damages is first made during the policy period. The claim must be a demand for damages by an injured party but it does not have to be in writing. Under most circumstances, a claim is considered made when it is received and recorded by you or by us; but sometimes, a claim may be deemed made at an earlier time. This can happen when another claim for the same injury or damage has already been made, or when the claim is received and recorded during an extended reporting period as described below. See paragraph 1.b. of Section I and Section V for details.

There is no difference between the two versions of the new CGL policy in the way personal injury and advertising injury liability (Coverage B) and medical payments (Coverage C) are provided. In both versions, claims for personal injury and advertising injury under Coverage B will be assigned to the policy period during which the offense that caused the injury was committed. In both versions, medical expenses under Coverage C will be assigned to the policy period during which the accident that caused the injury took place.

**SPECIAL "CLAIMS-MADE" PROVISIONS (Applicable only to "claims-made" version of new policy):**

Two concepts relating to continuity of coverage under the "claims-made" policy—and the pertinent policy provisions—are especially important to understand. These involve the Retroactive Date and the Extended Reporting Periods.

**Retroactive Date:**

If you have the "claims-made" version of the CGL policy, a Retroactive Date may be entered on the Declarations page. There is no coverage for bodily injury or property damage that occurred before the Retroactive Date, even if the claim is first made during the policy period.