Property Damage Includes Theft of Cash?

Our commercial liability policy defines property damage as physical injury to tangible property, including all resulting loss of use; or loss of use of tangible property that is not physically injured. We were wondering if the theft of cash is considered property damage based on this definition. What is your opinion?

California Subscriber

What has to be considered significant in this definition is the phrase “tangible property”. The definition of property damage requires that something happen to tangible property. Cash is not really tangible property in that its value is an intangible thing. If there were no value to the cash, it would be just paper. So, the loss of use or the destruction of cash is a loss based on the value that the government gives to the paper, that is, an intangible thing.

This is one of the reasons why there are crime policies separate from commercial liability policies. The loss of cash should be covered under a crime policy and not a general liability policy.