The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster'sjob is determining coverage. Each month, Claims publishes acoverage question asked by an insurance professional, along with ananswer provided by the dedicated editorial staff of FC&S Online(which, like Claims, is a division of the National UnderwriterCompany). With the biggest football game of the year this month,let's take a look at a coverage question concerning sportingequipment.

Question: The insured is a school district witha commercial property form providing coverage for “direct physicalloss.” Football helmets were stored in a building that sustainedfire loss. Helmets were cleaned to assure no smoke odor. Inspectionof helmet reveals no sign of physical damage and expert opines thatthe heat was not intense enough in the area of helmet storage tocause physical damage. The helmet manufacturer refuses to certifythe helmets due to exposure to fire loss and potential damage. Theschool is without the use of the helmets without requiredcertification. The insurer claims loss of use of property absentdirect physical loss is not a covered loss. Do you agree? -TexasSubscriber.

Answer: Yes, we do agree with the insurer.Since there is no physical loss to the helmets, the only loss istheir use. The ISO Building and Personal Property form, CP 10 30 0402 states, “We will not pay for loss or damage caused by orresulting from…loss of use.”