Q

One of our insureds had a customer's marble slab resting on a bunker. The bunker collapsed, and the marble slab broke into pieces. The company is denying the claim under the insured's general liability policy due to the care, custody, or control exclusion, and also under the commercial property policy (ISO form CP 10 30 04 02), due to limitation C.3.c. which eliminates coverage for breakage of “fragile articles such as glassware, statuary, marbles, chinaware and porcelains.” We do not look on a marble slab as a “fragile article.” Please comment.

Minnesota Subscriber

A

The loss to the unrefined marble slab would be unaffected by the fragile articles limitation. The operative word in the provision is “fragile,” and the list following are examples, not definitions. Although a piece of marble artwork is a fragile article, a large block of rock is outside the purview of the limitation. Many things (such as concrete blocks or bricks) may be breakable given sufficient force, but would hardly be considered fragile articles.