No Help for Deliberate Acts

In "Actions Must Be Accidental " we touched upon life becoming more filled with stressful situations that could end up causing injury or damage to others. The article also mentioned that many look to their insurance coverage to assist in such circumstances.

Here's the critical consideration. Insurance is meant to deal only with certain circumstances beyond a person's control. Typically, policies include the term "occurrence." It is defined with wording similar to the following:

This term refers to an accident and repeated exposure to similar conditions. However, for the accident or repeated exposure to be considered an occurrence, it must cause "bodily injury" or "property damage" which must take place during a policy period.

This language is dry but makes one thing clear: coverage obligation only responds to accidental circumstances. The bottom line is that a person who loses control, injures others, or damages or destroys another party's property deliberately can't rely on insurance.

At one time, insurance coverage made a consideration for intentional acts. It used to be that coverage sometimes applied when some form of unintended loss arose from a deliberate act. For instance, two people are arguing. As one person starts to leave the scene, the other grabs at the person, causing her to fall and fracture her knee. The medical costs may have been covered since the one person only meant to stop the other from leaving, not to cause the fall and injury. However, times have changed. Now, if the original act is intended (in this case, grabbing another), any harm resulting from the act is deemed deliberate.

Insurance works as a tool, an incredibly effective and flexible tool for handling both personal and commercial sources of loss. But it is not meant to save us from entirely controllable losses. It is important to recognize that, sometimes, the measures we need to take are to act with care, reason, and respect for others. If we don't, well, there's no insurance for the consequences of deliberate and reckless behavior.