The most important — and often toughest — part of an adjuster's job is determining coverage. Each month, Claims will publish a coverage question asked by an insurance professional, along with the answers provided by the dedicated editorial staff of FC&S Online (which, like Claims, is a division of the National Underwriter Company). With football season heating up, it seems appropriate to look at an issue involving plasma televisions.
Question: The insured is helping the owner of a large plasma TV move it because it was heavy. However, the insured put his thumb through the screen of the TV. Is this covered or excluded under care and control?– Wisconsin Subscriber
Answer: The additional coverage would provide the only coverage, since from a liability standpoint the TV was in the insured's sole control. The other possibility would be coverage under C, but this would only apply if the insured was using the owner's TV. But he wasn't, so back to the additional coverage being the only recovery place.
You do not state which homeowner's policy is in force, but look at the coverage for "damage to property of others," an additional coverage in the liability section. This is essentially "no-fault" coverage, and has always been intended to provide good neighbor coverage where liability need not legally be determined. Under the ISO HO 00 03 (2000 edition), there is $1,000 coverage that can be used to cover the loss.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.