One Occurrence or Multiple Occurrences in Question

February 4, 2010

This is a question of whether losses in a construction zone are separate occurrences. There are multiple claims for damages from road gravel debris causing damages to vehicles, and claims for damage to undercarriages from tar. This all happened on the same date and same stretch of roadway.

Would all the gravel and tar claims be considered one occurrence or more than one occurrence?

Ohio Subscriber

Most courts around the country have adopted the cause approach to determine whether multiple injuries or damages are treated as one or more than one occurrence. The cause approach means all losses arising out of the same source are treated as one occurrence. Moreover, the standard CGL policy states that an occurrence includes continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions.

So, since the road conditions, that is, both the tar and gravel, seem to be the cause of the damages in this instance, we are of the opinion that the tar damage and the gravel damage are one occurrence, not separate occurrences. Of course, courts can have different opinions based on how the individual court views the facts of the situation, but we believe that our opinion is the one most courts would affirm.