Casualty Insurance Basics and Liability Concepts
Negligence
Four elements: duty, breach, proximate cause, damages. Defenses include comparative negligence, assumption of risk, and contributory negligence. New York uses pure comparative negligence, so a plaintiff 30% at fault still collects 70% of the verdict. Res ipsa loquitur shifts the inference of negligence when the instrumentality was under the defendant's exclusive control. Strict liability applies to abnormally dangerous activities and products; vicarious liability holds an employer responsible for employees acting within scope.
Damages
Special (medical bills, lost wages), general (pain and suffering), and punitive (intended to punish).
Policy structure
Coverage triggers: occurrence (injury during the policy period) versus claims-made (claim made or reported during the policy period, subject to a retroactive date and extended reporting period). Limits are per occurrence and aggregate; defense costs are often outside the limit. The duty to defend is broader than the duty to indemnify - the insurer defends any suit with a potentially covered allegation.
Traps
Reading the aggregate as a per-occurrence limit; thinking a certificate of insurance is a contract that grants coverage; forgetting that a claims-made policy responds to when the claim is made, not when the act occurred; assuming personal and advertising injury falls under Coverage A.
Worked example
A jury awards $100,000 and the plaintiff is 30% at fault. Under pure comparative negligence the plaintiff recovers $70,000, and the insurer pays that amount subject to the per-occurrence limit.