CIAA discusses impact of changes to CGL policy

Of the 23 changes made in 2005 to the standard commercial general liability policy (CGL) by the Insurance Bureau of Canada, seven are considered significant, attendees of the Canadian Independent Adjusters’ Associations Ontario Region educational seminar were told.The first major change is in regards to compensatory damages, Vincent Burns, partner at McCague Peacock Borlack McInnis & Lloyd LLP, told the attendees. In the past, most policies would restrict coverage to compensatory damages. However, in the new policy compensatory damage is now a defined term and does not include punitive or exemplary damages or the multiple portion of any multiplied damage award, Burns told the crowd.There were significant changes made to the insuring agreement that is intended to clear up any confusion regarding the time period covered, he explained. Bodily injury or property damage has to occur during the policy period. It can still be covered if latent damage is not known, he said. In the negligent supervision/hiring section [there is] extensive amounts of additional language added, which is intended to clarify and explicitly exclude coverage for alleged negligent hiring, Burns said. In addition, the automobile exclusion has been updated to clarify a few criteria, mainly to prevent the CGL policy from being requested to respond to claims recoverable under an automobile insurance policy, Burns noted. According to Burns, other significant changes were to the damage to property exclusion and personal and advertising injury liability.