A Video Explaining the Need to Prove the Existence of an "Occurrence"

An "Occurrence" Must Always be an Accident and Fortuitous for Coverage to Apply

An “occurrence” is usually defined as accidental loss or damage which results, during the policy period, in bodily injury or property damage.

I
t should be axiomatic in all third party liability cases that before there can be a duty to defend there must be an occurrence or accident so that the events sued upon are fortuitous. In some states, the pleading controls the decision on coverage, as in Utah, while in others, like California, the insurer is obligated to look beyond the complaint to extrinsic facts.

The Eleventh Circuit has applied the injury-in-fact trigger three times in the context of similar, occurrence-based CGL policies and latent damages for purposes of determining whether the damage occurred during the policy period or during ongoing operations. The Court recognized that the Eleventh Circuit explicitly limited its holdings to the specific terms of the policies and facts before it. [Auto-Owners Ins. Co. v. Envtl. House Wrap, Inc. (M.D. Fla., 2019)]

In 1978, the California Supreme Court in Clemmer v. Hartford Insurance Co. dealt with a shooting that resulted in the death of the victim. Regardless, it still led to a finding by the Supreme Court of California of a need for defense and indemnity. The court concluded that Hartford had no duties with regard to Dr. Lovelace’s intentional acts in the killing of Dr. Clemmer but was obligated to defend him. If there was a finding of nonintentional conduct in the shooting, however, it would be obligated to defend and its refusal to do so was wrongful.

© 2021 – Barry Zalma

Barry Zalma, Esq., CFE, now limits his practice to service as an insurance consultant specializing in insurance coverage, insurance claims handling, insurance bad faith and insurance fraud almost equally for insurers and policyholders. He also serves as an arbitrator or mediator for insurance related disputes. He practiced law in California for more than 44 years as an insurance coverage and claims handling lawyer and more than 52 years in the insurance business. He is available at http://www.zalma.com and zalma@zalma.com.

Mr. Zalma is the first recipient of the first annual Claims Magazine/ACE Legend Award.

Over the last 53 years Barry Zalma has dedicated his life to insurance, insurance claims and the need to defeat insurance fraud. He has created the following library of books and other materials to make it possible for insurers and their claims staff to become insurance claims professionals.

Go to the podcast Zalma On Insurance at https://anchor.fm/barry-zalma;  Follow Mr. Zalma on Twitter at https://twitter.com/bzalma; Go to Barry Zalma videos at Rumble.com at https://rumble.com/c/c-262921; Go to Barry Zalma on YouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCysiZklEtxZsSF9DfC0Expg; Go to the Insurance Claims Library – https://zalma.com/blog/insurance-claims-library/ Read posts from Barry Zalma at https://parler.com/profile/Zalma/posts; and Read last two issues of ZIFL here.