APA Commercial General cheat sheet

Coverage A (Bodily Injury and Property Damage) applies only if the injury or damage is caused by an occurrence, defined as an accident, including continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions; intentional acts are not occurrences.

Coverage territory for Coverage A generally includes the United States, its territories and possessions, Puerto Rico, and Canada; products sold into other markets require a foreign liability endorsement or separate policy.

The insuring agreement is triggered by injury or damage during the policy period regardless of when the act causing it occurred, subject to the prior-knowledge condition; compare occurrence, claims-made, and claims-made-and-reported triggers.

Coverage B (Personal and Advertising Injury) covers offenses such as libel, slander, wrongful eviction, and infringement of copyright or slogan in an advertisement, but excludes knowing violation of rights and breach of contract claims.

Coverage C (Medical Payments) pays reasonable medical expenses within one year of an accident on the insured's premises or arising from the insured's operations, without regard to fault and without a deductible.

Limits structure: each occurrence limit for Coverage A; general aggregate for all injury/damage other than products-completed operations; products-completed operations aggregate; personal and advertising injury limit; damage to premises rented to you; and medical expense limit per person.

Standard exclusions include expected or intended injury, contractual liability, liquor liability (for insureds in the business of selling or serving alcohol), workers' compensation, employer's liability, pollution, aircraft, auto, and watercraft.

The your work exclusion bars damage to the insured's own work performed by or for the insured, and the impaired property exclusion bars damage to property that has not been physically injured but cannot be used because of the insured's defective work.

The employer's liability exclusion applies to bodily injury to an employee arising out of and in the course of employment, which is why a separate workers' compensation and employers liability policy is required.

Duties after loss include notifying the insurer promptly, cooperating in the investigation and defense, and authorizing the insurer to obtain records; voluntary payments by the insured generally void coverage for those amounts.

The insurer's right and duty to defend ends when the applicable limit of insurance has been exhausted by payment of judgments or settlements, and defense costs are paid in addition to the occurrence limit under the standard occurrence form.

The separation of insureds condition means coverage applies as if each named insured were the only insured, except for limits and the duties after loss; this does not override exclusions that apply to the named insured's operations.

Sole proprietors, partners, members, and managers are insureds for acts within the scope of their duties, and employees are insureds for acts within the scope of their employment, but not for injury to a co-employee.

Additional insured status is created only by endorsement; common forms include blanket automatic additional insured for written contracts, and the endorsement may restrict coverage to vicarious liability or to ongoing operations.

The waiver of subrogation condition is enforceable only if the insured has agreed in writing before the loss; a blanket endorsement is often used to satisfy construction contract requirements.

A claims-made policy covers claims first made during the policy period, while a claims-made-and-reported policy also requires the claim be reported within the same period or a specified extended reporting period.

The extended reporting period (tail) does not extend the policy period for occurrences; it only extends the time to report claims for wrongful acts that occurred on or after the retroactive date and before the policy expired.

Certificate of insurance forms and additional insured endorsements are not the policy itself; the policy wording and endorsements control coverage, and certificates confer no rights on the holder.