A firm carried an occurrence-form liability policy one year and switched to a claims-made form the next. A suit filed this year alleges injury that took place in the earlier year. Which policy responds?
Explanation
An occurrence form is triggered by when the bodily injury or property damage takes place, no matter how many years later the claim arrives, so the earlier policy answers injury that happened during its term. A claims-made form is triggered by when the claim is first made against the insured and reaches back only to injury on or after its retroactive date. Policies triggered on two different bases do not share one loss pro rata.
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