Contractural liability under CGL still in flux.(commercial general liability insurance)(The FC&S Answer)(Column)

National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, November, 1995 by Wolters, Eugene F.

This Insurance Services Office stood the commercial liability insurance world on its ear a few years ago when it announced its conclusion that the contractual liability cover of its commercial general liability policy does not necessarily cover the defense costs of an indemnitee. Now ISO is fixing to set that in concrete in its new CGL form expected to go into general use early in 1996 in many states.

"Contractual liability" is the industry's jargon for an assumption by one party (the CGL insured) of the potential liability of another party (the "indemnitee") for bodily injury or property damage to yet another, an outsider who is commonly known as "the third party." Stick with that concept of assumption of another's liability and you won't be confused by those...