Beware
of Co-insurance Loopholes
A Co-insurance provisions often show up in casualty policies. Insurers use them to keep policyholders from under-insuring property on first-dollar coverage. A typical co-insurance provision reads something like this: “In the event of a loss to which the limit of liability applies, the insurer shall in no event be liable for a greater proportion of such loss than the limit of liability involved bears to 100 percent of the evaluation of contents of the vehicle at the time such loss occurred.” Co-insurance provisions can have surprising and devastating effects. In your case, your coverage of $200,000 per occurrence is 40 percent of the $500,000 worth of goods on the truck. So your insurer will pay only 40 percent of the loss, or $100,000. You obviously assumed that all losses were covered at least up to the limit of $200,000 per occurrence, and surely the shipper did as well when it received your certificate of insurance. Co-insurance provisions, like other exclusions and policy loopholes, are not disclosed on the typical certificates of insurance used in the industry. Ironically, co-insurance provisions limit recovery on partially damaged loads but have no effect in the case of a total loss. So if the shipment had been a total loss, the insurer would have paid the full $200,000 policy limit. Address the co-insurance problem at the outset. Check your policy to ensure there is no co-insurance provision so you won’t have to deal with a nasty surprise. If you are forced to accept a co-insurance provision in your cargo policy, negotiate a released evaluation with your shipper that includes an alternate maximum, such as “$2.50 per pound per article” or “$100,000 per truckload, whichever is less.” This step will avoid this gap problem on partial losses where the total value of the cargo exceeds your policy limits. info@transportationlaw.net |