Commercial general liability insurance policies typically cover those sums an insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of “bodily injury.” That term is usually defined as: “bodily injury, sickness or disease sustained by a person, including death resulting from any of these at any time.” Coverage for tort claims where the plaintiff has sustained a physical impact to his body or suffers from a physical disease is well accepted. Similarly, claims for emotional distress or mental injury resulting from physical injury to the body are generally understood to be covered under liability insurance policies. What is less clear is whether purely emotional injury, such as claims for psychological injury not precipitated by a physical impact or injury to the body or a physical disease is “bodily injury” within the meaning of a liability insurance policy. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has not yet addressed this question. As a result, for at least the past 20 years state and federal courts have wrestled with the issue.
Many courts have held that emotional distress is not bodily injury unless the emotional distress is caused by physical impact or injury to the body, as in Kline v. Kemper Group, 826 F. Supp. 123, 129 (M.D. Pa. 1993), aff’d 22 F.3d 301 (3rd Cir. 1994); Zerr v. Erie Insurance Exchange, 446 Pa. Super. 451, 667 A.2d 237 (1995); and Philadelphia Contributionship Insurance v. Shapiro, 798 A.2d 781 (Pa.Super. 2002). In 2007, however, the Superior Court held in Glikman v. Progressive Casualty Insurance, 917 A.2d 872 (Pa. Super. 2007), that a claim for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) asserted by a woman who had seen her husband struck and killed by an automobile while crossing the street stated a claim for “bodily injury” even though the plaintiff herself had not been physically injured. The Glikman court observed that the definition of bodily injury included “disease” and that since there was no dispute that PTSD was a “disease,” the claim was covered as bodily injury. No physical impact or injury was required.
This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.
To view this content, please continue to their sites.
Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now
LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.
For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]
