8.11 Personal Injury Coverage

• Jurisdiction: Arizona

Standard general liability policies provide coverage for "personal injury." Personal injury is defined as injury, which is other than bodily injury that arises from offenses enumerated within the policy. These offenses are as follows: (a) false arrest, detention or imprisonment; (b) malicious prosecution; (c) wrongful eviction from, wrongful entry into, or invasion of the right of private occupancy; (d) oral or written publication or material that slanders or libels a person or organization or disparages a person or organization's goods, products or services; or (e) oral or written publication or material that violates a person's right of privacy.

Wrongful entry or wrongful eviction presupposes a landlord-tenant relationship.^[433] "Wrongful eviction" involves the actual interference with possessory rights to real property.^[434] The legal definition of an eviction is similar: an "eviction" is "[t]he act or process of legally dispossessing a person of land or rental property." Insurance coverage is limited to liability for purposeful acts aimed at dispossession of real property by someone asserting an interest in the property.^[435] A "wrongful eviction" occurs when the person recovering the property had no right to dispossess the other party from the property.^[436] A "wrongful entry" occurs when there is a trespass onto the claimant's real property.^[437] For purposes of liability insurance coverage for personal injury, claims that do not involve the physical occupation of or trespass upon real property are not within the meaning of the phrase "wrongful entry" or "wrongful eviction."^[438]

Like "advertising injury," the definition of "personal injury" contains several elements, each of which must exist in order for there to be coverage or a duty to defend.^[439] to fall within the definition of "personal injury," the underlying claim must arguably constitute an offense listed in the policy.^[440] coverage is not afforded for other torts, not specifically enumerated, that may bear only some similarity to those listed in the policy.^[441] coverage is determined by the nature of the claims made against the insured not by the nature of the damages requested.^[442] coverage is not available if the underlying lawsuit does not allege or the claimant does not recover for an enumerated tort listed under the definition of personal injury.^[443]

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Notes:

[433]Dryden Oil Co. of New England, Inc. v. Travelers Indem. Co., 91 F.3d 278, 286 (1st Cir. 1996); Titan Holdings...