Personal Injury Claim under CGL Form

Our insured has been named in a complaint alleging that they “personally or through their employees encouraged and actively participated in the intentional ejecting, harassment, and threatening of the plaintiffs”. Additionally, the complaint seeks judgment against the insured to compensate for losses suffered and injuries inflicted as a result of the insured's wrongful conduct; the injuries claimed are battery, emotional distress, humiliation, and embarrassment.

The insurer is refusing to provide a defense or indemnification on the basis that the complaint against the insured does not trigger coverage and that the conduct of the insured was intentional and criminal.

We disagree because coverage B of the CGL form covers intentional acts and we think the definition of personal injury includes wrongful eviction; the insured had the plaintiffs evicted from his business by the police. What do you think?

Connecticut Subscriber

It is true that coverage B of the CGL form applies to intentional acts or offenses as opposed to occurrences or accidents. But, coverage B applies to personal injury, which is a defined term, and unless the definition of personal injury is met as it appears in the CGL form, the form does not apply.

The definition of personal injury does include wrongful eviction but it has to be from a room, dwelling, or premises that a person occupies, and the eviction has to be by the owner or landlord of those places. Based on your description of the event, the eviction was from the insured's business premises and so, the person(s) evicted did not occupy that premises. Also, the eviction has to be a wrongful eviction and if the police did the actual evicting, the presumption is there that the eviction was not a wrongful one. So, the definition of personal injury is not met in this case and the insurer is correct in its assessment.

You did not ask about the claim for injuries based on the insured's wrongful conduct, that is, battery, emotional distress, humiliation, and embarrassment. The claim for battery would come under coverage A (bodily injury and property damage) except for the fact that this coverage applies to occurrences or accidents, and the actions of the insured do not seem to be accidental in this incident.

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