We are an insurance company with a policy covering a local building materials company on a commercial property policy, CP 00 10 04 02. That policy has a tool floater attached to it.

The company allows one of its employees to drive a company van to and from work and while on the job. This employee carries his own tools—worth about $50,000—in this van.

Recently, when the van was sitting in the employee's driveway, the tools were stolen from it. We are trying to find some coverage for these tools, but it appears that the agent and the insured did not arrange the policy properly. We would appreciate your input.

Michigan Subscriber

In reviewing the material you sent, it looks like the insured—the building materials company—made no provision to cover the tools of its employees on the CP 00 10 and the tool floater. They did purchase extra coverage for “property off-premises” and “property in transit.”

“Property off premises” applies to property that the insured (the building materials company) owns or has in its care, custody, or control. The company does not own the employee's tools and it is doubtful that the tools could be considered to have been in its “care, custody, or control.” If this went to court, and the court decided that the tools were in the “CCC” of the building materials company, the coverage for “property off premises” would still not apply because of the exclusion for property “on any conveyance.”

There may be a small window of opportunity under “property in transit.” This extension covers the insured's property and the property of others in the insured's care, custody, or control. The property must be “in transit in or on any one conveyance” while “not at a scheduled location.” Here again, coverage would be contingent on the court's finding that the tools were in the insured's “care, custody and control,” and that being on the truck meant that they were “in transit.”

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