How do I know if my policy has an action-over exclusion?

Read the endorsement list for titles such as action over, injury to employee, employer’s liability limitation, contractual liability limitation (CG 21 39) or a Labor Law exclusion. The certificate will not show it. Send us the policy and we will read it.

Does action-over coverage cost more?

Usually, because it is the most expensive claim a contractor’s general liability can face in New York. Pricing varies by carrier, trade and payroll.

Can you check the insurance requirements in my contract?

Yes. Paste the insurance section into our free Contract Insurance Decoder and it names the endorsement behind each clause, flags the ones that are often missing, and prints a checklist, without the text leaving your browser. Send that with your current policy and a licensed agent compares them line by line, usually the same business day.

A New York masonry subcontractor foreman in a hard hat on pipe scaffolding against a brownstone facade at dusk, a sidewalk shed below and the wet street reflecting lights

What is an action-over exclusion, and why will a GC reject my policy for it?

An action-over claim starts when your own employee is hurt on the job, sues the general contractor or owner, and they pass the claim back to you under your contract’s indemnity. Standard general liability covers that through the "insured contract" exception to its employer’s liability exclusion, and an action-over exclusion takes it away, so the indemnity you signed has nothing behind it.

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The forms, side by side

Form	What it does	Blanket or scheduled	Carrier availability	What to ask your agent	Common trap
CG 00 01 exclusion e	Excludes your own employee’s injury, except liability assumed in an insured contract	Standard form	Every ISO policy	Has anything narrowed the exception?	Assuming the exception survives every endorsement
Action-over exclusions	Remove the insured contract exception for employee injury	Carrier exclusion	Common in New York and high-hazard markets	Is there any action over or injury to employee exclusion?	Invisible on a certificate
CG 21 39	Contractual Liability Limitation: removes the tort-liability part of insured contract	Endorsement	Varies by carrier	Is CG 21 39 on the policy?	Guts every indemnity you sign
CG 24 26 04 13	Limits insured contract to injury caused in whole or in part by you	Endorsement	Common	Is CG 24 26 on the policy?	Narrower, and usually acceptable

CG 00 01 exclusion e
What it does
Excludes your own employee’s injury, except liability assumed in an insured contract
Blanket or scheduled
Standard form
Carrier availability
Every ISO policy
What to ask your agent
Has anything narrowed the exception?
Common trap
Assuming the exception survives every endorsement
Action-over exclusions
What it does
Remove the insured contract exception for employee injury
Blanket or scheduled
Carrier exclusion
Carrier availability
Common in New York and high-hazard markets
What to ask your agent
Is there any action over or injury to employee exclusion?
Common trap
Invisible on a certificate
CG 21 39
What it does
Contractual Liability Limitation: removes the tort-liability part of insured contract
Blanket or scheduled
Endorsement
Carrier availability
Varies by carrier
What to ask your agent
Is CG 21 39 on the policy?
Common trap
Guts every indemnity you sign
CG 24 26 04 13
What it does
Limits insured contract to injury caused in whole or in part by you
Blanket or scheduled
Endorsement
Carrier availability
Common
What to ask your agent
Is CG 24 26 on the policy?
Common trap
Narrower, and usually acceptable

The detail

The CG 00 01 employer’s liability exclusion removes bodily injury to the insured’s own employee arising out of employment, and states: "This exclusion does not apply to liability assumed by the insured under an 'insured contract'."
ISO Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 04 13 (specimen)
An "insured contract" includes the part of a contract pertaining to your business under which you assume the tort liability of another party to pay for bodily injury or property damage to a third person.
ISO endorsements reproduced in Risk & Insurance Education Alliance, "Certificates of Insurance and Additional Insureds" course materials (2019)
New York Workers’ Compensation Law section 11 bars an employer’s liability for contribution or indemnity to a third person unless the employee suffered a "grave injury" or the employer expressly agreed to it in a written contract entered into before the accident.
New York Workers’ Compensation Law section 11
New York Labor Law section 240(1) requires contractors and owners to furnish scaffolding, ladders and other devices "so constructed, placed and operated as to give proper protection to a person so employed."
New York Labor Law section 240

What this means for you

Your workers comp does not answer this claim. Comp pays your employee. The lawsuit against the general contractor, passed back to you, is a liability claim, and only your general liability can answer it.
New York is where it decides placement. Section 240 makes owners and contractors answerable for gravity-related injuries, and the written indemnity in your subcontract is what passes those claims to you. Policies there commonly exclude it, and general contractors read for the exclusion.
The fix is a carrier, not a form. Removing an action-over exclusion is rarely possible mid-term. The answer is a market that writes the exposure, placed before the bid.

Go deeper on any of these

Need this handled?

Reading about it and having it handled are different jobs, and the second one is ours. We place the accounts other brokers decline — claims history, a cancellation, an unusual operation, a business nobody wants to underwrite twice — and we will tell you when the policy you already have is the right one. Tell us the situation and a licensed human replies the same business day.