Separate and Define "Bodily Injury" and "Property Damage"

[coverageguy]

The present policy wording reads: "We cover claims of bodily injury or property damage, not stress, mental anguish or reputational damage."

It'd be wise to specify what "Bodily Injury" and "Property Damage" are intended to mean, and to do it individually--for example, your standard ISO HO policy covers physical injury, sickness, and disease. It'll also cover mental anguish and death, but only as a result of a physical injury. Will Policy 2.0 refuse to cover a claimant/plaintiff's claim for general damages for the pain and suffering, emotional distress, and mental anguish that followed their trip and fall, for example?

With "Property Damage", the door is currently wide open for allegations of both tangible and intangible property damage. When Ben drops his roommate's MacBook and fries the hard drive, you'll see a claim for the MacBook, but what about the roommate's future NYT-bestseller that's now lost forever? What about when Ben knocks Sara's cello out of her hands while she's on her way to a gig? She's losing out on income until it's replaced, but loss of use isn't defined as a covered issue on the policy as present.... but should it be?

Since a policy is a contract of adhesion, it's the insurer's duty to be clear, and questions of interpretation can/will be answered to the benefit of the insured, even in arbitration.

[ckvo]

@coverageguy Interesting thoughts. As you know we are trying to avoid strictly defining terms in the policy and instead relying on the common usage of the word. To answer your question in respect of coverage for "bodily injury" under Policy 2.0, the intention is to be in line with that provided under the standard ISO homeowners policy.

With these ideas in mind, do you have any suggestions on how we can specifically address the two points you raise in the wording?

[coverageguy]

There are a lot of words in a policy that are just fine being interpreted commonly, but bodily injury and property damage have special meaning since their interpretations are subjective. It's probably worth having a separate definition section as building on 2.0 continues--it can already be a lot more user friendly than a standard policy since definitions throughout can be made links to take the reader straight to the definition section, or a definition can show when hovering over the term.

For BI, "Bodily injury is physical bodily harm, sickness, or disease, including death that occurs as a result." If you intend to cover mental distress resulting from bodily injury, then the last bit would read "including mental distress or death that occurs as a result." Law in the state where the claim is made/suit is filed may define it differently, but this definition is in line with ISO HO wording.

For PD, "Property damage is physical injury to, the destruction of, or loss of use of tangible property." I assume since 2.0 already mentions an exclusion for reputation, y'all don't intend to cover intangible property.