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

CGL Coverage B and Coverage C

While Coverage A handles physical harm, Coverage B (Personal and Advertising Injury Liability) addresses certain non-physical, reputational, and advertising-related offenses, and Coverage C (Medical Payments) pays small medical bills on a no-fault basis. Both appear regularly on the national P&C exam, often as distractors against Coverage A.

A central distinction tested heavily: Coverage A requires bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence, but Coverage B responds to enumerated offenses - it does not require an occurrence or physical injury at all.

Coverage B: The Seven Enumerated Offenses

"Personal and advertising injury" means injury, including consequential bodily injury, arising out of one or more of these offenses:

1. False arrest, detention, or imprisonment.
2. Malicious prosecution.
3. Wrongful eviction, wrongful entry, or invasion of the right of private occupancy of a room/dwelling/premises a person occupies (by or on behalf of the landlord/owner).
4. Oral or written publication of material that slanders or libels a person or organization (defamation).
5. Oral or written publication of material that violates a person's right of privacy.
6. The use of another's advertising idea in your advertisement.
7. Infringing upon another's copyright, trade dress, or slogan in your advertisement.

Coverage B Limits and Exclusions

The Personal and Advertising Injury Limit is the most the insurer pays for the sum of all such injury sustained by any one person or organization, and it is subject to the General Aggregate. There is no separate "each occurrence" limit for Coverage B because these are offenses, not occurrences.

Key Coverage B exclusions include offenses committed with knowledge of falsity, material published before the policy period, criminal acts, breach of contract (except certain advertising-idea liability), and the failure of goods to conform to advertised quality. Patent and trademark infringement are excluded except for the specifically listed trade dress, slogan, and copyright-in-advertisement offenses.

Coverage C: Medical Payments

Coverage C pays reasonable medical expenses for bodily injury caused by an accident on premises the insured owns or rents, on ways next to those premises, or because of the insured's operations - regardless of fault. This is a goodwill / no-fault coverage designed to settle minor injuries quickly and discourage lawsuits.

Expenses must be incurred and reported within the time stated (generally the accident must occur during the policy period and expenses incurred within one year of the accident date). The Medical Expense Limit is per person (commonly $5,000) and is part of the Each Occurrence Limit and subject to the General Aggregate.

Coverage C Exclusions and Worked Numeric

Medical Payments will not pay for injury to the named insured or employees, to a tenant occupying the premises, to anyone injured while taking part in athletics, or to anyone where injury is covered under workers' compensation. It also excludes injury arising out of the products-completed operations hazard.

Worked numeric: A customer slips in a store. The CGL has a $5,000 Medical Expense (per person) limit and a $1,000,000 Each Occurrence limit. The customer's bills total $6,500. Coverage C pays the $5,000 Medical Payments limit with no liability finding required. If the customer then sues and a court awards $80,000 in damages, that judgment is handled under Coverage A within the Each Occurrence limit - and any Med Pay already paid reduces the amount available under that same occurrence limit.

Comparison Table: A vs B vs C

Coverage B - Personal and Advertising Injury

CGL Coverage B responds to a closed list of enumerated offenses rather than to "occurrences." It is offense-triggered: coverage attaches when the offense is committed in the coverage territory during the policy period. The offenses are: false arrest, detention, or imprisonment; malicious prosecution; wrongful eviction, wrongful entry, or invasion of private occupancy; oral or written publication that libels, slanders, or disparages; oral or written publication that violates a person's right of privacy; use of another's advertising idea; and infringement of copyright, trade dress, or slogan in the insured's advertisement.

Coverage B Exclusions

Coverage B excludes offenses committed with knowledge of falsity, statements made before the policy period, breach of contract, failure of goods to conform to advertised quality, wrong description of price, and most intellectual-property infringement other than copyright/trade-dress/slogan in advertising. A frequent trap: a patent-infringement claim is not covered, while a slogan-infringement claim in an advertisement is.

Coverage C - Medical Payments

Coverage C pays reasonable medical expenses, regardless of fault, for bodily injury caused by an accident on the insured's premises or arising out of the insured's operations, if the expense is incurred and reported within a stated time (often one year). It is a goodwill, no-fault coverage with a low per-person sublimit, designed to settle minor injuries quickly and discourage liability suits.

Why Coverage C Is Not a Liability Coverage

Coverage C excludes injury to the insured, employees, tenants, and those injured in business operations covered by workers' comp, and injury arising out of the products-completed-operations hazard. Recognizing that Coverage C pays without a finding of fault - but only for narrow on-premises/operations injuries - separates it from the liability coverages.