8.4 Bodily Injury, Property Damage, and Personal/Advertising Injury

The Insured Events Under the CGL

The ISO Commercial General Liability (CGL) Coverage Form (CG 00 01) organizes liability into three coverages. Knowing exactly which offense falls under which coverage is heavily tested.

The CGL is an occurrence form by default; an alternative claims-made version (CG 00 02) exists for higher-hazard accounts.

Bodily Injury and Property Damage (Coverage A)

Bodily injury (BI) means bodily injury, sickness, or disease sustained by a person, including death that results. It generally does NOT include purely emotional distress unless accompanied by physical harm (state-dependent).

Property damage (PD) means:

1. Physical injury to tangible property, including resulting loss of use; AND
2. Loss of use of tangible property that is not physically injured.

Trap: Data and software are generally NOT "tangible property" under the CGL, so a claim for lost electronic data is typically excluded from PD. Coverage A responds only to BI or PD caused by an occurrence — defined as "an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions."

Personal and Advertising Injury (Coverage B)

Coverage B responds to enumerated offenses — not to BI or PD. The seven listed offenses are:

1. False arrest, detention, or imprisonment
2. Malicious prosecution
3. Wrongful eviction, wrongful entry, or invasion of the right of private occupancy
4. Oral or written publication that slanders or libels a person or organization
5. Oral or written publication 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

Trap: Patent and trademark infringement are EXCLUDED from Coverage B (only copyright, trade dress, and slogan in an advertisement qualify). Coverage B is triggered when the OFFENSE is committed, not by an occurrence.

CGL Limits and How They Erode

The CGL applies multiple limits in a defined order. A worked example:

• General Aggregate: $2,000,000 (caps all BI/PD/Coverage B except products-completed operations)
• Products-Completed Operations Aggregate: $2,000,000 (separate bucket)
• Each Occurrence: $1,000,000 (caps any single loss)
• Personal & Advertising Injury: $1,000,000 per person/organization
• Damage to Premises Rented to You: $300,000
• Medical Payments: $5,000 per person

Worked numeric

Three separate covered occurrences during the term cost $700,000, $800,000, and $900,000. Each is under the $1M per-occurrence limit, but they total $2,400,000. The General Aggregate of $2,000,000 caps total payments, so the insurer pays $2,000,000 and the insured absorbs the remaining $400,000.

Exam point: The per-occurrence limit caps a single loss; the aggregate caps the policy year. Defense costs under the CGL are paid OUTSIDE the limits (supplementary payments), so they do not erode the aggregate.

The Four Injury Definitions

Commercial liability divides covered harm into precise definitions, and matching a fact to the right one drives the answer:

Bodily Injury and Property Damage Nuances

BI requires physical harm - purely emotional distress without physical manifestation is often excluded or litigated. PD includes both physical injury to tangible property (and the resulting loss of use) and loss of use of tangible property that is not physically injured (for example, a contractor blocking access to a store). Data and software are generally not tangible property under the standard CGL, which is why cyber exposures need separate coverage.

Personal and Advertising Injury (Coverage B)

In the ISO CGL these are combined as "personal and advertising injury" under Coverage B. The enumerated offenses are a closed list: false arrest/detention/imprisonment; malicious prosecution; wrongful eviction or invasion of private occupancy; oral or written publication that slanders, libels, or violates privacy; use of another's advertising idea; and infringement of copyright, trade dress, or slogan in the insured's advertisement. Because it is offense-based, coverage is triggered when the offense is committed during the policy period.

Why the Distinctions Matter for Limits

Coverage A (BI/PD) and Coverage B (personal/advertising injury) draw on different limits and aggregates within the CGL. Personal/advertising injury is not subject to the products-completed-operations aggregate; it shares the general aggregate. A candidate must place each offense in the right coverage and the right aggregate to answer limit-erosion questions correctly - a defamation suit erodes the general aggregate, while a defective-product injury erodes the products-completed-operations aggregate.

Loss of Use Without Physical Injury

A subtle but tested property-damage point: the CGL definition of property damage includes loss of use of tangible property that is not physically injured. A contractor who negligently blocks access to a neighboring store causes property damage (loss of use) even though nothing was physically broken - so the claim can trigger Coverage A.

By contrast, purely economic loss with no bodily injury, physical damage, or loss of use (a bad business tip causing lost profits) is generally not covered. Separating loss-of-use property damage from uncovered pure economic loss is the distinction the exam draws in fact patterns involving delay, interference, and access.