By Allison McGreal, Assistant Vice President

A typical Commercial General Liability Policy will exclude contractual liability which “indemnifies a railroad for bodily injury or property damage arising out of construction or demolition operations within 50 feet of any railroad property and which affects  any railroad bridge or trestle, tracks, roadbeds, tunnel, underpass  or crossing”. You may notice that the work doesn’t have to be performed within 50 feet of the tracks.  If your client is performing these contracting operations within 50 feet of any railroad property, this is a significant exclusion and should be addressed via endorsement to the CGL policy.

Most carriers using an ISO GL form will offer a CG 24 17 Contractual Liability-Railroads endorsement to “buy back” some of this excluded coverage. It replaces the definition of “Insured Contract” and removes the above language from the exclusion. Carriers prefer to limit the endorsement to a scheduled railroad and a designated job site, as this endorsement is usually driven by a specific contract.  However, many will consider using blanket verbiage. The cost for this coverage will vary based on the scope of services, limits required, and size of the project, but because this limit is typically a shared limit within the CGL liability limit, there can be some flexibility in pricing. Read the rest of the article.