Bodily Injury

Overview

Bodily Injury is a fundamental coverage trigger in liability insurance. It refers to physical harm sustained by a person — including sickness, disease, disability, and death — that results from an insured's operations, products, or premises. Nearly every commercial liability policy provides coverage for bodily injury claims, making it one of the most important terms in COI compliance.

How It Works

Under a standard Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy using ISO form CG 00 01, bodily injury is defined as "bodily injury, sickness or disease sustained by a person, including death resulting from any of these at any time." This definition is intentionally broad, covering a wide range of physical harm scenarios.

When a third party suffers bodily injury caused by the insured's operations, the CGL policy responds in two ways:

• Duty to defend: The insurer provides and pays for legal defense against the claim, even if the claim is ultimately found to be groundless.
• Duty to indemnify: The insurer pays damages the insured is legally obligated to pay, up to the policy limits.

Bodily injury claims can include compensation for:

• Medical expenses and rehabilitation costs
• Lost wages and loss of earning capacity
• Pain and suffering
• Emotional distress (when accompanying physical injury)
• Wrongful death damages

The coverage applies on a per-occurrence basis, meaning each incident that causes bodily injury is subject to the Each Occurrence Limit, and all bodily injury claims in a policy period are subject to the General Aggregate Limit.

Compliance Relevance

Bodily injury coverage is central to COI compliance because it represents the primary protection against the most common and costly liability claims:

• Limit adequacy: Contracts specify minimum Each Occurrence and General Aggregate limits to ensure sufficient coverage for potential bodily injury claims. A $1,000,000/$2,000,000 requirement is standard, but high-risk operations may require higher limits.
• Exclusion review: Some policies contain exclusions that narrow bodily injury coverage — such as athletic participant exclusions, assault and battery exclusions, or pollution exclusions that eliminate bodily injury from pollutant exposure.
• Umbrella coordination: When bodily injury claims exceed the primary CGL limits, umbrella or excess liability policies provide additional coverage. Compliance teams verify that umbrella policies also cover bodily injury.

Example

A plumbing contractor working in a commercial building accidentally ruptures a steam pipe, causing burns to a building employee. The injured employee files a bodily injury claim against both the contractor and the building owner. The contractor's CGL policy responds to defend and indemnify. Because the building owner is named as an Additional Insured, they also receive coverage under the contractor's policy for this bodily injury claim.