The article of the month analyzes the special personal auto policy, PP 90 01. This policy was developed by the Insurance Services Office in order to provide coverage for the insured and his use of the vehicle in a way that is more restrictive than the standard personal auto policy.

There has been limited use of PP 90 01, but since it is still available for insureds, this article is presented in order to offer a detailed analysis of the policy, its insuring agreement, exclusions, and general provisions.

The court cases for the month come from Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Texas . The Pennsylvania case is from the United States District Court and involved a coverage dispute revolving around whether damage to the insured property resulted from sinkhole collapse as defined in the policy. The court in its decision made a distinction between earth movement (an excluded cause of loss) and sinkhole collapse (a covered cause of loss). The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri dealt with breach of contract and faulty workmanship claims. The court had to decide if there was an occurrence in this instance and whether any exclusions applied to the property damage claims. One of the Texas cases deals with whether a statutory employee is deemed to be an employee of the named insured, with the bodily injury claim by that employee then subject to the employers liability exclusion in the general liability policy. The other Texas case comes from the Texas Supreme Court and addresses the question of whether a communicable disease is bodily injury covered by the business auto policy.

Questions and Answers

Customer eats food at insured's place and becomes ill. Is this a premises liability claim or a products claim? See Products and Completed Operations Hazards Redefined. Does nuclear energy liability exclusion apply to CAT scans or X-rays? See Nuclear Energy Liability Exclusion.

Insured has tenants liability endorsement on his BOP. Personal property of owner was damaged. Does endorsement cover the claim? See Tenants Liability Endorsement and Damage to Personal Property. Employee stole items over six-month period. Is this one occurrence or multiple occurrences? See Property Damage, Deductibles, and Number of Occurrences.

Residual Markets

A new article that lists information on residual markets on a state-by-state basis was added this month. See Residual Markets.