ISO form and endorsement changes approved by individual states through November

Rough Notes, Dec 1995 by Kowatch, Diana

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Includes copyrighted material of Insurance Services Office, Inc. or ISO Commercial Risk Services, Inc, with its permission. (C)Copyright, Insurance Services Office, Inc., 1995 (C)Copyright, ISO Commercial Risk Services, Inc, 1995.

COUNTRYWIDE

Underground storage tank liability policy revisions

Filings were made earlier in the year to the underground storage tank liability policy to make the coverage and wording more consistent with the 1995 commercial general liability changes. The first change of note is a revision to the Who Is An Insured provision. Limited liability companies (including their members and managers) are now designated as insureds. Under the supplementary payment, the maximum amount that will be available per day for loss of earnings when the insured is cooperating with the insurer has been increased from $100 per day to $250.

Other changes are editorial in nature, such as putting the term "employee" in quotation marks to designate that it is a defined term. Listed below in the individual states will be an indication of those states that have approved the UST revisions. The text will not be repeated but will refer to this Countrywide section. The date the revision has been approved for use is March 1, 1996, unless otherwise shown below.

Garage coverage total pollution exclusion

A new commercial automobile endorsement has been developed, filed and is now being approved in a number of jurisdictions. This endorsement, the Total Pollution Exclusion Garage Coverage Form NonAuto Exposure Endorsement -- CA 25 16, is an optional endorsement that is intended to provide or maintain consistency between all commercial liability coverages, both general liability and auto, with respect to the pollution exposure and exclusion of such.

The attempt is to provide a total pollution exclusion.

This endorsement should be used any time a pollution policy or an underground storage tank liability policy is in existence, to prevent overlaps and duplicate coverages. Limited below in the individual states will be an indication of those states that have approved this endorsement. The text will not be repeated but will refer to this Countrywide section. The date the revision has been approved for use will be July 1, 1995 unless otherwise shown below.

1995 commercial general liability revisions

Revisions have been made to the commercial general liability coverage forms, both the Occurrence Version--CG 00 01 and the Claims Made Version -- CG 00 02, as well as many of the CGL endorsements. Most of the changes and revisions made are to provide consistency in policy language, forms, format, concepts, and wording. Many of these revisions are editorial in nature, such as alphabetizing the definitions, making sure defined terms and only defined terms are in quotation marks, and similar corrections.

One consistent change made is in the definition of Insured Contract, whereby the list of professional services has been amended to better explain and clarify by using standard industry terms. A significant clarification has been made in the insuring agreements of the coverage forms and endorsements. This revision makes clearer the intent of the insurer to not provide defense when no coverage exists within the policy.

Contractual liability coverage within the CGL is clarified to extend to not only the damages assumed by the insured in an insured contract, but also, defense of such.

An interesting personal injury revision has been made. In the past, attempts have been made to use the personal injury coverage for wrongful entry or other invasion of the right of private occupancy, to reflect pollution coverage. It has now been clarified that personal injury does not cover pollution.

The amount of loss of earnings coverage provided an insured who loses income at the request of the insurer under the supplementary payments coverage has been increased from $100 per day to $250.

The definition of Who Is An Insured has been extended to include limited liability companies.

Two important definitions have been clarified and bear close attention, the first being "Products and Completed Operations Hazard' and the second being' suit."

The above outlined changes and revisions are brief overviews and not all inclusive in nature. They should be studied in more detail to determine their full impact.

Listed below in the individual states, will be an indication of those states that have approved these revisions to the CGL program. The text will not be repeated but will refer to this Countrywide section. The date these revisions have been approved for use is March 1, 1996, unless otherwise shown.