Most small businesses have general liability insurance, especially if those businesses invite members of the general public onto the business premises. When an accident happens (an “occurrence” in insurance parlance), the business and the insurance company generally agree that slip-and-fall accidents and a few other types of negligence are covered under the insurance policy. (After all, that is why the business acquired the policy in the first place.)
However, there has been less certainty about whether a business, or an individual for that matter, is covered under an insurance policy when the suit is for negligence as related to the intentional act of some other person. For example, what happens when there is a suit against an employer for negligent supervision or negligent hiring, based upon the intentional act of its employee?
The Ohio Supreme Court answered that question on Tuesday: Negligence based upon the intentional act of a third person is covered as if it were regular negligence under the insurance policy. In Safeco Ins. Co. of Am. v. White, 2009-Ohio-3718, the Court held that the general liability insurance policy of parents of a boy who stabbed a jogger covered a negligent supervision claim by the jogger against the boy’s parents.
Read the case in its entirety here.