CGL Coverage B: Personal and Advertising Injury, Coverage C: Medical Payments

Coverage B: Personal and Advertising Injury Liability

Coverage B pays damages because of personal and advertising injury - an offense-based trigger rather than the accident-based trigger of Coverage A. The wrongdoing is an offense the insured commits during the policy period in the coverage territory. Like Coverage A, Coverage B carries a duty to defend.

The ISO CG 00 01 form lists the covered offenses. Memorize them; the exam tests them by example.

The seven covered offenses

Trap: patent and trademark infringement are not covered offenses (only copyright, trade dress, and slogan in your advertisement). And there is no "bodily injury" element in Coverage B - it covers reputational and intangible harms.

Coverage B in practice: advertising and tenant disputes

Coverage B is the most misunderstood CGL agreement because it has nothing to do with bodily injury. Picture a retailer whose new ad campaign copies a competitor's slogan: the resulting slogan-infringement suit is a Coverage B "advertising injury" claim. Or a landlord who locks out a tenant without proper process: that wrongful eviction is "personal injury." Because Coverage B is offense-based, the trigger is the date the insured commits the offense, not when an accident happens - and the policy in force when the offense was committed responds.

The knowing-violation and prior-publication traps

Two Coverage B exclusions decide most exam questions. The knowing-violation exclusion bars coverage when the insured published material knowing it was false or knowing it would violate another's rights; innocent or negligent publication remains covered. The prior-publication exclusion bars injury arising from material first published before the policy period - you cannot buy a policy to cover a libel you already released. Add the intellectual-property limitation (patent and trademark are excluded; only copyright, trade dress, and slogan in your advertisement are offenses) and you can answer most Coverage B items.

Coordinating Coverage C with Coverage A

Coverage C Medical Payments is a deliberate claim-prevention tool: paying a $4,000 emergency bill with no admission of fault often stops a $200,000 negligence suit before it starts. Remember three limits on it: the injured person cannot be an insured or employee, the expense must be incurred within the stated time (often one year), and the per-person Medical Expense limit sits inside the Each Occurrence limit - it is not extra money. If a Coverage A judgment later follows, any Coverage C already paid for the same injury is credited so the insurer does not pay twice.

This Coverage C-to-Coverage A coordination is a common multi-part question.

Why Coverage B is offense-based, not accident-based

Unlike Coverage A, which needs an accidental occurrence, Coverage B is triggered by the insured committing one of the listed offenses during the policy period - so the date the offense is committed, not an accident date, controls which policy responds. This is why a libelous advertisement, a wrongful eviction, or a privacy violation can be covered even though nothing was physically damaged.

The patent and trademark exclusion (only copyright, trade dress, and slogan in an advertisement are covered) and the knowing-violation exclusion (innocent or negligent publication is covered, deliberate falsehood is not) decide most Coverage B questions.

Coverage B limit and exclusions

Coverage B has its own Personal and Advertising Injury Limit (typically equal to the Each Occurrence limit) and still erodes the General Aggregate. Key exclusions:

• Injury the insured caused knowing the act was false or would violate another's rights.
• Breach of contract (except misappropriation of advertising ideas under an implied contract).
• Advertising for a business whose primary occupation is advertising, publishing, or broadcasting.
• Failure of goods to conform to advertised quality.

Trap: Coverage B excludes acts done knowingly with intent to harm - innocent or negligent publication is what gets covered.

Coverage C: Medical Payments

Coverage C pays reasonable medical expenses for bodily injury caused by an accident on premises the insured owns or rents, or arising from the insured's operations - regardless of fault. It is a goodwill, no-fault coverage meant to settle small injuries before they become liability suits.

• Expenses must be incurred and reported within a stated time (often one year from the accident date) and the injured person must submit to exam.
• A per-person Medical Expense Limit applies (commonly $5,000 or $10,000) and is inside the Each Occurrence limit, not in addition to it.
• Coverage C does not apply to the insured, the insured's employees (workers' comp territory), tenants, or anyone injured while the injury would be excluded under Coverage A.

Worked example

A customer trips in a store and the merchant's CGL has a $1,000,000 Each Occurrence limit and a $5,000 Coverage C Medical Expense limit. The customer's emergency bills total $4,200. The insurer can pay the $4,200 under Coverage C without any finding of fault, which often heads off a larger Coverage A suit.

If the customer later sues for negligence and wins $80,000 in damages, that judgment is paid under Coverage A, but any Coverage C amount already paid is credited so the insured is not paying twice for the same injury.