Casualty Insurance and Liability Coverages
Liability fundamentals
Negligence requires duty, breach, causation, and damages. West Virginia follows modified comparative fault: the claimant's damages are reduced by his own percentage of fault, and a sufficiently at-fault claimant recovers nothing - not the pure comparative rule used in some states. Liability policies respond to legal liability, not moral obligation.
The Commercial General Liability occurrence form carries three coverages: A - bodily injury and property damage, B - personal and advertising injury (libel, slander, false arrest, invasion of privacy, infringement of advertising ideas), and C - medical payments (no fault, small amounts, no lawsuit required). Limits include each occurrence, general aggregate, products-completed operations aggregate, and a separate personal and advertising injury limit. Supplementary payments - defense costs, bail bonds, loss of earnings - sit outside the limits.
Major exclusions: expected or intended injury, contractual liability, your work and your product, impaired property, damage to property in the insured's care, and employers liability (covered instead by Part Two of a workers compensation policy, because workers compensation is the exclusive remedy for employee injury). Claims-made forms respond to claims reported during the policy period, subject to a retroactive date and an extended reporting period.
Umbrellas sit over auto, general liability, and employers liability and drop down to fill some gaps; excess policies do not. Specialty lines include professional/E&O, D&O, EPLI, and liquor liability.
Traps: assuming Coverage B covers breach of contract; forgetting defense costs do not erode the occurrence limit; confusing an additional insured with a certificate holder.
Example: A customer slips in the insured's store. Coverage A and medical payments may both respond, but only the Coverage A payment reduces the general aggregate.