CISR Commercial Casualty I flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Elements of negligence

Duty owed to the claimant, breach of that duty, proximate cause linking the breach to the harm, and actual damages; all four must be proven by a preponderance of the evidence.

Invitee duty of care

An invitee, such as a customer or business visitor, is owed reasonable care including inspection of the premises and correction or warning of hidden unsafe conditions.

Licensee duty of care

A licensee, such as a social guest, is owed a duty to warn of known dangerous conditions but generally no duty to inspect the premises for unknown hazards.

Trespasser duty of care

A trespasser is owed only avoidance of willful, wanton, or intentional injury; the attractive nuisance doctrine creates a higher duty toward trespassing children.

Res ipsa loquitur

A doctrine allowing an inference of negligence when the injury-causing instrument was in the defendant's exclusive control and the accident would not ordinarily happen without negligence.

Comparative negligence

Damages are reduced in proportion to the plaintiff's own fault; a pure rule allows recovery at any percentage while a modified rule bars it at 50 or 51 percent.

Contributory negligence

A common-law defense that completely bars recovery when the plaintiff contributed to the injury in any degree; it remains in only a few jurisdictions.

Vicarious liability

Legal responsibility of one party for another's acts, as when an employer is liable for employee torts committed within the scope of employment under respondeat superior.

Strict liability

Liability imposed without proof of fault, applied to abnormally dangerous activities, defective products, and harm caused by wild animals or known dangerous domestic animals.

Special vs general damages

Special damages are measurable economic losses such as medical bills and lost wages; general damages compensate intangible harm such as pain, suffering, and disfigurement.

Coverage A insuring agreement

Pays damages the insured becomes legally obligated to pay because of bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence in the coverage territory, and includes defense.

Coverage B personal injury

Covers offenses such as libel, slander, false arrest, wrongful eviction, and invasion of privacy; no occurrence or bodily injury is required, but knowing violations are excluded.

Coverage C medical payments

Pays reasonable medical expenses for third parties injured on the insured's premises or by its operations, regardless of fault, subject to a per-person limit.

General aggregate limit

The maximum the insurer pays in a policy period for all Coverage A and Coverage B claims combined, excluding products-completed operations, which carries its own separate aggregate.

Products-completed operations aggregate

A separate limit applying to bodily injury or property damage occurring after the insured's work is completed or product relinquished and arising from that work or product.

Supplementary payments

Amounts paid in addition to the limits of liability, including defense costs, bail bonds, appeal bonds, and up to a stated daily amount of the insured's lost earnings.

Expected or intended injury

Exclusion a to Coverage A bars bodily injury or property damage expected or intended from the standpoint of the insured, judged by the insured rather than the injured party.

Damage to your work exclusion

Exclusion k bars damage to the insured's own work and property damage arising from it, but does not apply when a subcontractor performed the damaged work.

Insured contract

A defined term including leases of premises, certain easement agreements, and business contracts assuming tort liability; it supports an exception to the contractual liability exclusion.

Separation of insureds condition

Coverage applies as if each insured had a separate policy, so one insured's conduct does not prejudice another; limits are still shared and exclusions apply to the claim at issue.

Occurrence versus claims-made

Occurrence policies respond to injury or damage during the policy period whenever claimed; claims-made policies respond to claims first made during the period, subject to a retroactive date.

Pollution exclusion

Bars coverage for bodily injury, property damage, and cleanup costs arising from actual or threatened discharge of pollutants, with narrow exceptions such as specified heating oil or hostile fire.

CG 20 10 endorsement

Additional Insured - Owners, Lessees or Contractors - Scheduled Person or Organization; the 2004 and later editions grant status for ongoing operations only, not completed work.

CG 20 37 endorsement

Additional Insured - Owners, Lessees or Contractors - Completed Operations; it adds completed-work coverage and is needed alongside CG 20 10 when contracts require it.

CG 20 11 endorsement

Additional Insured - Managers or Lessors of Premises; it gives the entity managing or leasing premises to the named insured status for liability arising out of that premises.

CG 20 33 endorsement

Grants automatic additional insured status to owners, lessees, or contractors when a written construction agreement requires it, limited to ongoing operations in the current edition.

Primary and noncontributory

Wording making the insured's policy respond first and requiring other applicable insurance to not share the loss; achieved only by endorsement, never by certificate.

Certificate of insurance

An ACORD form evidencing coverage on a given date; it confers no rights, amends no policy, and cannot create additional insured, primary, or waiver terms.

Waiver of subrogation

An endorsement, for example CG 24 04, under which the insurer gives up its right to recover from the named party after paying a covered loss.

Scope of additional insured coverage

An additional insured is covered only for liability arising out of the named insured's operations or premises, not for its own independent business or professional acts.

Blanket additional insured

An endorsement automatically extending status to any person or organization the named insured has agreed in writing to add, avoiding the need to list each entity individually.

Severability and cross liability

Wording treating each insured as separately insured so that one insured can claim against another under the same policy, which basic additional insured endorsements do not provide.