Tenant Didn't Have to Name Owner in Insurance Policy

Facts: An owner and tenant signed a commercial lease that required the tenant to obtain commercial general liability insurance (CGL) for their “mutual benefit.” The blanket additional insured endorsement in the CGL policy that the tenant purchased stated that the definition of “an insured” includes “any person that a written contract required the tenant to name as an additional insured.”

The owner and the tenant asked the insurer to amend the policy to state that the insurer is required to provide the owner a defense and pay any damages that the owner might incur in any suit arising from a claim. The insurer refused, and the owner and tenant sued. The owner and tenant claimed that the owner was both an additional insured under the policy's blanket additional insured endorsement and a third-party beneficiary under the policy.

The trial court granted the owner's and tenant's requests for a judgment without a trial, and the insurer appealed.

Decision: A New York appeals court reversed the trial court's ruling.

Reasoning: The appeals court concluded that the owner was not an additional insured under the policy's blanket additional insured endorsement, because the lease required the tenant only to obtain commercial general liability insurance that benefited it and the owner mutually; not that it name the owner as an additional insured.

Editor's Note: If the insurance policy does not specifically name, describe, or refer to the owner as an additionally insured, there is no obligation on the part of the insurer to defend or compensate the owner for any loss incurred.

• Kassis v. The Ohio Casualty Insurance Company, May 2008