Harborline and Meridian: Ongoing vs. Completed Operations AI Status
Harborline Contracting is the general contractor on a $14 million office fit-out. Its subcontract with Meridian Mechanical requires Meridian to name Harborline as an additional insured "for ongoing and completed operations" and to provide primary, non-contributory coverage. Meridian's CGL carries blanket additional insured wording (CG 20 33) limited to ongoing operations, plus a scheduled CG 20 10 naming Harborline. No completed-operations additional insured endorsement is attached, and primary/non-contributory is not endorsed. The certificate of insurance Meridian sent lists Harborline as additional insured with no form numbers. In 2023, after substantial completion, a rooftop unit Meridian installed leaked and damaged $310,000 of tenant improvements and inventory. The tenant sued both firms; Harborline's own crew had failed to install a required secondary drain pan.
1. Is Harborline an additional insured for this post-completion claim? Walk through each document.
Read the worked answer
No - the promise in the subcontract is not the coverage, and no attached form reaches completed operations.
- CG 20 10. Covers the additional insured only for liability arising out of the named insured's ongoing operations, and expressly excludes injury or damage occurring after the work has been completed or put to its intended use. A 2023 leak from an installed rooftop unit is completed-operations loss. Out.
- CG 20 33 (blanket). Automatic status is also framed around ongoing operations and typically requires the written contract to have been executed before the loss. It does not expand into completed operations.
- Missing form. Completed-operations status requires a CG 20 37 or its equivalent. Harborline's contract right to it does not attach to Meridian's policy; it is only a breach-of-contract claim against Meridian.
- The certificate. Informational only. Its disclaimer states it confers no rights, and the absence of form numbers is a red flag, not a grant.
Result: Harborline's tender for the completed-operations claim fails, and Harborline defends through its own carrier. Meridian's own Coverage A still responds to the tenant's suit against Meridian, including the contractual-liability and completed-operations exposures it bought.
2. Assume the leak had occurred during construction instead. Would Harborline be covered for its own failure to install the secondary drain pan?
Read the worked answer
That depends on the wording of the AI grant - and here the answer is probably not, or not fully.
- The "caused by" limitation. The standard CG 20 10 grants status only for liability caused in whole or in part by the named insured's acts or omissions, or those acting on its behalf. Harborline's own crew omitting a drain pan is neither. If Harborline's negligence is the sole cause, it is outside the grant entirely; if Meridian's installation was also faulty, Harborline is inside the grant for its vicarious share.
- Compare CG 20 11. Landlord/lessor forms have no "caused by" language, which is why AI scope questions turn on the form number, not on the contract.
- Primary and non-contributory. Not endorsed, so Meridian's policy sits alongside Harborline's under the standard other-insurance condition; the two carriers share rather than Meridian defending first.
- Practical consequence. Harborline's carrier will pursue Meridian on the indemnity clause, subject to any anti-indemnity statute that voids shifting Harborline's own negligence.
Lesson for the file: never accept "additional insured" in a subcontract as synonymous with coverage for the general contractor's own work.
3. What should Harborline's risk manager have done differently at contract execution, and what would you check on a renewal?
Read the worked answer
Convert every contract promise into a specific form on the policy, and verify by form number and edition date.
At execution:
- Specify the form. Require CG 20 37 (or equivalent) for completed operations in addition to CG 20 10, and state the ISO number in the subcontract so there is no gap to argue about.
- Order the ancillary endorsements. Primary and non-contributory, and waiver of subrogation, each require their own forms; neither follows from "additional insured."
- Reject certificates as proof. Demand a specimen endorsement page with the named insured, the additional insured, and the edition date.
On renewal:
- Re-confirm the schedule of AI forms; blanket endorsements change edition and some editions narrowed scope.
- Check whether the subcontractor's policy is claims-made or occurrence, and whether any retroactive date cuts off the project.
- Confirm the additional insured's completed-operations coverage duration aligns with the statute of repose for the project state.
- Track the project's substantial completion date, because it is the dividing line between the two endorsements.
The $310,000 loss is the cost of a contract clause that was never translated into a policy.