The insuring agreement is the affirmative coverage grant. In a commercial general liability policy it typically obligates the insurer to pay sums the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurrence during the policy period, and to defend suits seeking those damages.
Coverage analysis proceeds in order: the claim must first fall within the insuring agreement, and only then do exclusions and conditions come into play.
Alternative Names:
Coverage Grant
Why it Matters?
Threshold coverage questions in complex tort litigation are almost always insuring agreement questions rather than exclusion questions. Whether a construction defect is property damage, whether repeated exposure is one occurrence, and whether an intentional act qualifies as an accident are all decided at this stage, and they drive both the defense obligation and the limits available.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
What is the order of analysis in a coverage opinion?
Does the insuring agreement create the duty to defend?
