Assault and Battery

April 2008

All D&O policies exclude coverage for claims that allege bodily injury and property damage. These exclusions focus on specific types of injury rather than a particular type of wrongful act, and are excluded because they are exposures that are typically covered by the organization's general liability policy. Most D&O policies also exclude some types of personal injury and/or advertising injury, again because these exposures are usually the subject of general liability coverage. A generic example of D&O policy wording that excludes bodily injury and property damage, as well as certain personal injury offenses, follows:

The Insurer shall not be liable to make any payment for Loss in connection with a Claim made against an Insured:

(f) for emotional distress or for injury from libel, slander, defamation, disparagement, or a violation of a person's right of privacy; …

(k) for bodily injury, sickness, disease, or death of any person, or damage to or destruction of any tangible property, including the loss of use thereof;

When a D&O policy also provides Employment Practices Liability (EPL) coverage, the bodily injury or personal injury exclusion is sometimes expanded to include the offenses of assault and battery, as shown in the following examples:

The Insurer shall not be liable to make any payment for Loss in connection with any Claim made against an Insured:

for:

1. bodily injury, sickness, disease, death, assault or battery of any person…

Admiral Insurance Co.

NP 3200 (08-99)

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