CG 20 26: Additional Insured, Designated Person or Organization

Legal purpose and coverage scope

CG 20 26 amends Section II, Who Is An Insured, of the commercial general liability coverage part to add the person or organization shown in its schedule. Unlike CG 20 10, it is not written around construction relationships. The form simply names a party, which is why it appears on certificates issued to cities for permits, to venues for events, to property owners for service vendors, and to customers who ask a supplier for additional insured status without saying which form.

On the 07 04 and later editions the grant has two prongs. The first covers liability caused, in whole or in part, by the named insured's acts or omissions (or those of anyone acting on its behalf) in the performance of its ongoing operations. The second covers liability caused the same way in connection with premises owned by or rented to the named insured. The premises prong protects the additional insured from the vendor's own locations, such as a caterer's commissary or a contractor's equipment yard. It does not turn the endorsement into protection for the additional insured's building.

Two consequences follow. There is no coverage for the additional insured's sole negligence, because the named insured must have caused the injury at least in part. And there is no coverage once the work is finished and put to use, because the operations prong is limited to ongoing operations. A tenant improvement contractor's loose stair rail that injures a visitor eight months after turnover falls outside the grant.

How CG 20 26 behaves in a tender or claim

When an additional insured tenders under CG 20 26, the vendor's carrier asks three questions: is the tendering party actually named in the schedule (or in the Declarations, if the schedule points there); did the named insured's acts or omissions cause the injury at least in part; and did the injury arise during ongoing operations or in connection with the named insured's premises. Each question maps to a common denial letter.

Schedule mismatches are the most avoidable denials. A schedule that names "Harbor Point Properties" does not obviously reach "Harbor Point Tower Owner LLC," the entity that signed the service agreement and is the defendant in the suit. Carriers also read the 04 13 and 12 19 limiters closely: if your contract required $1,000,000 and the vendor carries $2,000,000, the additional insured gets $1,000,000, because the endorsement pays the lesser of the contract requirement or the available limits.

CG 20 26 says nothing about priority, so the vendor's Other Insurance condition controls. Without CG 20 01 or equivalent primary and non-contributory wording, the vendor's carrier can argue that both policies are primary and should share, or point to excess wording, pushing part of the loss back to your program and its self-insured retention.

Edition history that changes the answer

The 11 85 edition is a single sentence: the scheduled party is an insured only with respect to liability arising out of the named insured's operations or premises owned by or rented to it. "Arising out of" is broad causation language, and "your operations" is not limited to ongoing operations. Some courts read that edition to reach completed work and the additional insured's own negligence, which is why owners still ask for it by name.

The 07 04 revision moved the form to "caused, in whole or in part, by" and inserted the ongoing operations limit. The 04 13 revision added the three limiters ISO applied across its additional insured forms. The 12 19 edition keeps the grant and updates the limits wording. Few carriers still issue the 11 85 form on new business, so a certificate that lists it should be checked against the endorsement page actually attached to the renewal.

What to require or prohibit in the contract

For non-construction vendors (janitorial, security, landscape maintenance, event and catering services), CG 20 26 at the 04 13 or 12 19 edition is acceptable if the exhibit also requires primary and non-contributory wording and a waiver of subrogation. Name every party that needs protection: the property-owning entity, the property manager, the lender if the loan documents require it, and their officers and employees.

For anyone performing construction, installation, alteration or repair work, require CG 20 26 or CG 20 10 for ongoing operations plus CG 20 37 (or a blanket completed operations equivalent) for a stated number of years after completion. Prohibit designated premises or project limitations that would make the grant irrelevant at your location.

• Require: schedule entries that match the legal entities in the agreement, the 04 13 or later edition (or wording at least as broad), CG 20 01 primary and non-contributory, and CG 24 04 waiver of subrogation.
• Require for construction scopes: completed operations additional insured coverage by CG 20 37 or equivalent for at least three years after completion.
• Prohibit: CG 21 44 limitations that leave out your premises or project, and carrier wording that limits additional insured status to vicarious liability only.

How Pikorua Security verifies or flags CG 20 26

Pikorua Security reads the endorsement page itself, not the certificate's description of it. The parser extracts the form number and edition from the page footer, the schedule text, and the grant wording, then compares each against the rule set built from your exhibit. Each schedule entry is fuzzy-matched to the legal entities on the agreement record, so "Harbor Point Properties" against "Harbor Point Tower Owner LLC" is flagged as a probable mismatch for a risk manager to confirm in one click.

When the vendor's scope is tagged as construction or repair work, Pikorua Security requires a completed operations form alongside CG 20 26 and marks the file deficient if none is attached. The deficiency notice goes to the vendor and its retail broker with the specific missing form, the contract paragraph that requires it and a zero-login upload link, and it repeats on the 60/30/15/0 day cadence until the corrected endorsement arrives.