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MARINE TECHNICIAN TODAY
|
WINTER 2014
B
usiness Liability insurance protects you, the insured,
from law suits alleging your negligence that leads to
bodily injury and property damage. One would naturally
assume that damage to your customer’s property, their boat and
equipment, would surely be covered. As we will find out, that would
be a very poor assumption for an AMTECH member to make.
Within the standard Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) form,
including the Businessowners Policy (BOP), there is a brief but
critical exclusion which states:
As stated above, the policy does provide “Property Damage”
coverage, but this exclusion removes specific property from the
coverage which is “personal property in your care, custody and
control.” What has been taken away?
First, let’s take a look at “personal property.” Personal property
is rarely defined in the insurance policy so we take a look at the
legal definition. Personal property is any property that is subject
to ownership that is not “real property.” “Real property” is defined
as land and any permanent attachments to that land. Therefore,
“personal property” can be moved from one place to another.
Now let’s look at “care, custody and control,” since that is the
specific personal property which is being excluded by the insurance
policy. “Care, custody and control” is also not defined by the
policy so we must turn to a legal definition and we find that care custody
and control is “the possession of property of another which has been
entrusted to you for inspection, guarding, maintenance or security.”
Combining the two elements of the exclusion we now know that
you, the insured, have no coverage in the business liability policy
for moveable property of another person which has been entrusted
to you for maintenance. As a marine repair technician, does that
sound like a pretty unacceptable exclusion?
There are several examples of businesses that assume control of
personal property belonging to their customers. Think of some of the
businesses which you hand your property to in your daily life; your
dry cleaner, a valet parking attendant, your auto body shop or the coat
By James Kay, CIC, CRM
“This insurance does not apply to
“Property Damage” to personal
property in the care, custody or
control of the insured.”
BEWARE
The Insurance
“Care, Custody and Control”
Exclusion
,
COVER YOUR ASSETS
