Our insured was laying underground fiber optic cable in June of 2018 and accidentally cut the claimant's power lines, which caused a power loss along with resulting damages. No claim was ever presented then. Our insured then repaired the lines themselves. The policy with the insured ended in October of 2019. In January of 2020, the claimant loses power again from the alleged faulty repairs from 2018. The agent believes since this all occurred from one occurrence that we should cover both dates of loss. My belief is that per the insuring agreement the property damage must occur during the policy period, so we would cover the 2018 damages and not the 2020 damages since the damages in 2020 occurred outside the policy period. This is a CG 00 01 04 13 policy. Who is correct? Thanks, I tried to make this as short as possible.

New Jersey Subscriber

The property damage to the line occurred in the 2018 policy, so that is the policy under which coverage would be sought. The definition of occurrence includes continuous or repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions. The latter damage is a continuance of the same occurrence, not two separate occurrences. The term 'continuous or repeated exposure' eliminates the necessity of proving the exact moment at which damage was sustained, and so gradual damage over time would be included in the definition.