{"id":904035,"date":"2025-03-04T15:10:36","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T22:10:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=904035"},"modified":"2025-03-04T15:10:46","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T22:10:46","slug":"non-defective-work-commercial-general-liability-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/non-defective-work-commercial-general-liability-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"First Circuit Broadly Interprets Exclusion in Commercial General Liability Policy Under Current Massachusetts Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Bill Wilson | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionlawzone.com\/2025\/02\/first-circuit-broadly-interprets-exclusion-in-commercial-general-liability-policy-under-current-massachusetts-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Construction Law Zone<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In\u00a0<em>Admiral Insurance Co. v. Tocci Building Corp<\/em>., 120 F.4th 933 (1st Cir. 2024), the federal Court of Appeals ruled that, under current Massachusetts law, a general contractor\u2019s Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy does not cover damage to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/property-damage-to-non-defective-work-is-covered\/\">non-defective work<\/a> resulting from defective work by subcontractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defendant contractor was retained as a construction manager for an entire residential construction project. After several work quality issues and delays on the project, the contractor was terminated before the project\u2019s completion. The owner of the project filed suit against the contractor for breach of contract and related claims but did not allege negligence by the contractor. The complaint included allegations of defective work by the contractor\u2019s subcontractors leading to various instances of damage to non-defective work on the project including: (1) damage to sheetrock resulting from faulty roof work; (2) mold formation resulting from inadequate sheathing and water getting into the building; and (3) damage to a concrete slab, wood framing, and underground pipes resulting from soil settlement due to improper backfill and soil compaction. The contractor\u2019s request for defense and indemnification coverage under its CGL policy was denied by its insurer. The insurer filed suit seeking a declaratory judgment confirming it had no obligation to defend or indemnify the contractor. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the insurer and the contractor appealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Court examined the \u201cDamage to Property\u201d exclusion outlined in subsection (I)(2)(j) of the CGL policy, which provides that there is no coverage for \u201cproperty damage\u201d to \u201c(6) [t]hat particular part of any property that must be restored, repaired or replaced because \u2018your work\u2019 was incorrectly performed on it.\u201d The CGL policy defines \u201cyour work,\u201d in relevant part, as \u201cwork or operations performed by you or on your behalf.\u201d Since the complaint alleged damage resulting from the contractor\u2019s \u201cincorrectly performed\u201d work on the entire project, the Court interpreted the (j)(6) exclusion as applying to the entirety of the project where the contractor was the construction manager charged with supervising and managing the whole project, the Court enforced the exclusion against coverage for the contractor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Court also examined the exception to the exclusion in (j)(6), which provides that the exclusion does not apply to \u201c\u2018property damage\u2019 included in the \u2018products-completed operations hazard.\u2019\u201d The \u201cproducts-completed operations hazard,\u201d in turn, \u201cincludes all \u2018bodily injury\u2019 and \u2018property damage\u2019 occurring away from premises you own or rent and arising out of \u2018your product\u2019 or \u2018your work\u2019 except \u2026 (2) work that has not yet been completed or abandoned.\u201d Since the contractor was terminated and did not complete or abandon the project prior to damage, the court of appeals concluded that the coverage exclusion in (j)(6) still applied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In closing, the court of appeals left the door open for potential coverage for damage to non-defective, work arising from a subcontractor\u2019s defective work even with the (j)(6) exclusion. Since the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has yet to rule on the issue, it could interpret \u201cproperty damage\u201d caused by an \u201coccurrence\u201d to encompass this type of damage, which could allow a general contractor to potentially receive coverage if the work is completed or abandoned, as\u00a0the exception to the exclusion would then apply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Wilson | Construction Law Zone In\u00a0Admiral Insurance Co. v. Tocci Building Corp., 120 F.4th 933 (1st Cir. 2024), the federal Court of Appeals ruled that, under current Massachusetts law, a general contractor\u2019s Commercial General Liability (CGL) policy does not cover damage to non-defective work resulting from defective work by subcontractors. The defendant contractor was&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/non-defective-work-commercial-general-liability-policy\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">First Circuit Broadly Interprets Exclusion in Commercial General Liability Policy Under Current Massachusetts Law<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10791,30],"tags":[9895,4739,8981],"class_list":["post-904035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commercial-general-liability-policy","category-general-liability-policy","tag-advise-consult","tag-commercial-general-liability-policy","tag-non-defective-work","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>First Circuit Broadly Interprets Exclusion in Commercial General Liability Policy Under Current Massachusetts Law - Advise &amp; 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