8.4 Bodily Injury, Property Damage, and Personal/Advertising Injury
Key Takeaways
- Bodily injury (BI) means physical injury, sickness, or disease, including death; in the ISO CGL it must be caused by an occurrence to trigger Coverage A.
- Property damage (PD) means physical injury to tangible property (including loss of use) or loss of use of undamaged tangible property; tangibility is the key exam trap.
- The CGL Coverage A insuring agreement (CG 00 01) covers BI and PD; Coverage B covers personal and advertising injury, a list of specified offenses.
- Personal and advertising injury includes false arrest, malicious prosecution, wrongful eviction, libel, slander, invasion of privacy, copying advertising ideas, and trademark/slogan infringement.
- A single occurrence triggers the per-occurrence limit; the general aggregate caps most Coverage A and B payouts for the policy year, while products-completed operations has its own aggregate.
The Defined Injuries in the CGL
Liability coverage is organized around precisely defined injuries. The ISO Commercial General Liability (CGL) Coverage Form CG 00 01 defines each term, and the exam tests the definitions almost word-for-word. Use the policy meanings, not everyday language.
Bodily Injury (BI)
Bodily injury means physical injury, sickness, or disease sustained by a person, including death resulting from any of these. Under Coverage A, BI must be caused by an occurrence — an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same harmful conditions.
Trap: the standard CGL definition of BI is physical. Purely mental anguish or emotional distress with no physical injury is often excluded from BI (and may instead fall under personal injury offenses). Read the question for a physical component.
Property Damage (PD)
Property damage means:
- Physical injury to tangible property, including resulting loss of use of that property; or
- Loss of use of tangible property that is not physically injured.
| Situation | Covered as PD? |
|---|---|
| A forklift dents a customer's truck | Yes – physical injury to tangible property |
| A power outage from insured's error idles a neighbor's shop | Yes – loss of use of undamaged tangible property |
| Loss of purely financial/electronic data | Often no – data is generally not tangible property |
Tangibility trap: the CGL has expressly stated that electronic data is not tangible property. Pure economic loss without physical damage is usually outside the BI/PD definition.
Coverage A vs. Coverage B
| Coverage A | Coverage B | |
|---|---|---|
| Covers | Bodily injury & property damage | Personal and advertising injury |
| Trigger | Caused by an occurrence | An enumerated offense |
| Examples | Slip-and-fall, product injury | Libel, wrongful eviction, copying an ad idea |
Personal and Advertising Injury Offenses (Coverage B)
Coverage B responds to a defined list of offenses, not to accidents:
- False arrest, detention, or imprisonment
- Malicious prosecution
- Wrongful eviction or wrongful entry
- Oral or written publication that libels or slanders a person or organization
- Oral or written publication that violates a person's right of privacy
- The use of another's advertising idea in your advertisement
- Infringing on another's copyright, trade dress, or slogan in your advertisement
Trap: these are intentional-style offenses but are covered because they are listed by name. Do not confuse Coverage B offenses with the excluded intentional bodily injury of Coverage A.
How the Limits Interact
The CGL declarations list several limits that work together:
| Limit | What It Caps |
|---|---|
| Each Occurrence | Most a carrier pays for one occurrence (BI + PD combined) |
| General Aggregate | Total for Coverage A (non-products), Coverage B, and medical payments in the policy year |
| Products-Completed Operations Aggregate | Separate annual cap for products/completed-operations losses |
| Personal & Advertising Injury | Cap per person/organization for Coverage B |
Worked example: A CGL has a $1,000,000 each-occurrence limit and a $2,000,000 general aggregate. Three separate non-products occurrences cause covered losses of $800,000, $700,000, and $900,000 = $2,400,000 demanded. Each loss is under the $1M occurrence cap, but the general aggregate caps total payments at $2,000,000, leaving $400,000 uninsured for the year (until the aggregate resets at renewal).
Exam takeaway: BI and PD turn on physical/tangible harm and an occurrence; Coverage B turns on a named offense. Per-occurrence limits apply to each loss, while the aggregate caps the policy-year total — and products-completed operations carries its own separate aggregate.
Occurrence and the Expected/Intended Trap
Coverage A requires that BI or PD be caused by an occurrence — defined as an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same harmful conditions. Damage the insured expected or intended is excluded, with a carve-back for the use of reasonable force to protect persons or property.
| Fact Pattern | Occurrence? |
|---|---|
| Scaffolding accidentally collapses onto a car | Yes — an accident |
| Insured deliberately throws a tool at someone | No — expected/intended |
| Reasonable force used to eject a trespasser | Treated as covered (self-defense carve-back) |
Trap: "expected or intended" is judged from the insured's standpoint. A foreseeable but unintended result can still be an occurrence; only harm the insured actually expected or meant to cause is excluded.
Medical Payments (Coverage C)
The CGL also includes a small Coverage C – Medical Payments that pays reasonable medical expenses for bodily injury to others regardless of fault, within a stated reporting window. It is a goodwill, no-fault coverage with a low sublimit, separate from the liability of Coverage A, and it shares the general aggregate.
Putting the Definitions to Work
- Confirm a physical element for bodily injury; flag pure mental distress and route it to Coverage B offenses if applicable.
- Confirm tangibility and either physical injury or loss of use for property damage; reject pure financial loss and electronic-data claims.
- Match a named offense to Coverage B, an accidental BI/PD to Coverage A, and a no-fault courtesy payment to Coverage C.
- Apply the per-occurrence limit to each loss, then test the general aggregate for the policy-year total, remembering products-completed operations carries its own separate aggregate.
Exam takeaway: definitions decide coverage. The words "physical," "tangible," "occurrence," and the Coverage B offense list are the exact hooks the test writers use.
Under the standard CGL, which of the following best fits the definition of property damage?
Which of these losses is covered under CGL Coverage B (personal and advertising injury) rather than Coverage A?
A CGL has a $1,000,000 each-occurrence limit and a $2,000,000 general aggregate. Three separate non-products occurrences cause covered losses of $800,000, $700,000, and $900,000. How much is left uninsured for the policy year?