The CG 20 37 endorsement adds a project owner, general contractor, or other upstream party as an additional insured on a contractor’s Commercial General Liability policy for claims that arise after the contractor’s work is finished. It plugs a specific hole in the standard CGL: the policy covers the contractor’s own completed operations, but without this endorsement it does nothing for the owner or general contractor who gets sued years later when a defect finally surfaces.
What “Completed Operations” Actually Means
The endorsement responds only to liability included in the “products-completed operations hazard.” Under the CGL, that hazard covers bodily injury and property damage arising from the named insured’s finished work, and only when the injury or damage occurs away from premises the named insured owns or rents.1Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. CG 20 37 10 01 – Additional Insured Owners, Lessees Or Contractors Completed Operations A roofing sub’s work fails two years post-completion, water damage injures a building occupant, and the owner (named as an additional insured) can tender that claim to the sub’s carrier instead of absorbing the loss alone.
Work crosses from “ongoing” to “completed” at the first of three triggers:
- Every task called for in the named insured’s contract has been physically finished.
- If the contract covers multiple sites, all work at the relevant site is done.
- The portion of work from which the injury arises has been put to its intended use by someone other than another contractor or subcontractor working on the same project.
Work that still needs service, maintenance, or repair but is otherwise finished still counts as complete.2New York Office of General Services. Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 Punch-list items and warranty callbacks don’t reset the clock.
Why You Usually Need the CG 20 10 Too
The CG 20 37 handles the completed phase. Its companion, the CG 20 10, handles ongoing operations, meaning injuries and damage that occur while work is still in progress. The two are a matched pair, and a certificate of insurance listing only one of them leaves half the project uncovered. A contract that requires full additional insured protection should name both. If the subcontract calls only for CG 20 10, the upstream party has nothing once the sub leaves the site.
How to Qualify as an Additional Insured
A written contract between the named insured and the party seeking coverage must require the named insured to add that party as an additional insured for completed operations.1Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. CG 20 37 10 01 – Additional Insured Owners, Lessees Or Contractors Completed Operations Spell out the legal name of the entity being added and identify the project or location. Vague references invite disputes at claim time.
Watch the privity issue. Endorsement language like “with whom you have agreed” has led some courts to hold that only parties in direct contractual privity with the named insured qualify. A project owner may not automatically pick up additional insured status under a subcontractor’s policy when the owner’s contract runs through the general contractor. The fix is to require, in the subcontract itself, that the sub add both the GC and the owner by name.
Timing matters just as much. A contract signed after an incident has already happened will not retroactively create additional insured status, and carriers routinely deny on that ground. Keep the signed contract on file. In a dispute five years after project completion, it is the first document the carrier will ask for.
The ISO Edition Date Changes Your Coverage
ISO has released several editions of the CG 20 37, and the language shifts between them determine how hard the carrier can push back on a claim.
The 2013 edition (CG 20 37 04 13) is the one to look for. It requires that the bodily injury or property damage be “caused, in whole or in part, by” the named insured’s work.3Independent Insurance Agents of Texas. CG 20 37 04 13 – Additional Insured Owners, Lessees Or Contractors Completed Operations Earlier editions said “arising out of,” a looser standard that courts read to require only a general causal link. “Caused, in whole or in part” has been interpreted to require proximate cause, which gives carriers more room to deny when the named insured’s work was only tangentially related.
The 2013 edition also added an explicit cap: coverage applies only to the extent permitted by law, and the available insurance is the lesser of what the contract requires or the policy limits.3Independent Insurance Agents of Texas. CG 20 37 04 13 – Additional Insured Owners, Lessees Or Contractors Completed Operations Older editions lacked that cap, and additional insureds sometimes argued for broader coverage than the contract contemplated. When you review a certificate, check the edition date on the endorsement. It tells you more about actual protection than the headline policy limits do.
What You Actually Get in Limits
The additional insured does not receive a separate pool of coverage. It shares the named insured’s policy limits, and payouts to the additional insured reduce the named insured’s aggregate.
Under the 2013 edition, the maximum payable on behalf of the additional insured is the lesser of:
- The amount of insurance the contract requires, or
- The applicable limits shown in the policy declarations.
If the subcontract requires $2,000,000 in completed operations coverage but the sub’s policy carries only $1,000,000, the additional insured gets $1,000,000 at most.3Independent Insurance Agents of Texas. CG 20 37 04 13 – Additional Insured Owners, Lessees Or Contractors Completed Operations A common failure point: risk managers negotiate high contractual limits without confirming the sub carries enough insurance to back them up.
Completed operations claims are also subject to the policy’s separate products-completed operations aggregate, distinct from the general aggregate. The per-occurrence limit still applies to any single event regardless of how many additional insureds the policy carries.
The Policy Period Problem
A CGL on an occurrence basis responds only to bodily injury or property damage that takes place during the policy period. The products-completed operations hazard does not override that requirement.4International Risk Management Institute. The Hazards of Products and Completed Operations Understanding the Fundamentals A subcontractor finishes work in 2024, lets the policy lapse in 2025, and an injury in 2026 caused by that completed work has no coverage for anyone, named insured or additional insured.
Protection under the CG 20 37 is only as good as the named insured’s active policy at the time the injury occurs. Sophisticated owners require contractors to maintain CGL coverage with completed operations for a set number of years after project completion, often tied to the state’s statute of repose. Those statutes cut off construction defect claims after a fixed window, ranging from roughly 4 to 15 years depending on the state. An owner who stops monitoring the contractor’s ongoing insurance can discover years later that the safety net lapsed long before the claim arrived.
Making the Coverage Primary and Noncontributory
When the additional insured also carries its own CGL, the standard “other insurance” clause typically pushes the additional insured coverage into excess position over that policy. The upstream party ends up tapping its own insurance anyway, which defeats the point of the risk transfer.
The CG 20 01 endorsement (“Primary and Noncontributory — Other Insurance Condition”) solves this. Attached to the named insured’s policy, it makes that coverage primary and bars the carrier from seeking contribution from the additional insured’s own policy.5Independent Insurance Agents of Texas. CG 20 01 04 13 – Primary and Noncontributory Other Insurance Condition Two conditions apply: the additional insured must be a named insured on its own policy, and the written contract must require the named insured’s insurance to be primary and noncontributory.
A well-drafted construction contract usually requires all three endorsements together: CG 20 10, CG 20 37, and CG 20 01. If the subcontract names only the first two, the general contractor’s own carrier may end up sharing costs that should have fallen entirely on the sub’s policy.
Tendering a Claim
When a completed operations claim arrives, the additional insured formally tenders it to the named insured’s carrier. Send a copy of the lawsuit or demand, the contract establishing additional insured status, and the certificate of insurance showing the CG 20 37. Move quickly. Many policies require the additional insured to “immediately forward” legal documents to the insurer, and delay gives the carrier grounds to deny.
Some jurisdictions follow a notice-prejudice rule, meaning the carrier can’t deny for late notice unless it shows the delay actually impaired its defense. Others don’t. Fighting over prejudice while also defending a construction defect lawsuit is a position worth avoiding, so tender the moment you become aware of a potential claim, even before formal litigation.
Once a tender is accepted, the carrier owes two duties. The duty to defend is broad and kicks in whenever the allegations, if true, could fall within coverage. The duty to indemnify is narrower and depends on whether the facts ultimately show the named insured’s work caused the loss. Carriers often defend under a reservation of rights while investigating whether the named insured’s work was actually involved.
What the Endorsement Will Not Do
Anti-Indemnity Statutes
The endorsement itself says it “only applies to the extent permitted by law.”3Independent Insurance Agents of Texas. CG 20 37 04 13 – Additional Insured Owners, Lessees Or Contractors Completed Operations That language exists because several states have anti-indemnity statutes voiding additional insured coverage when the additional insured is solely at fault. Some states void coverage only for sole negligence; others reach further and limit coverage even where fault is shared. A contract drafted without reference to the applicable state law can create an illusion of coverage that disappears at claim time.
Professional Services
The CG 20 37 covers liability arising from the named insured’s physical work: construction, installation, repair. It does not reach claims rooted in professional services such as architectural design, engineering calculations, or surveying errors. Some ISO additional insured forms contain an express design professional exclusion. A claim about faulty installation gets tendered; a claim about flawed structural design does not. That risk sits with a separate errors and omissions policy.
Abandoned Work
Work a contractor walks away from before completion still falls within the products-completed operations hazard.2New York Office of General Services. Commercial General Liability Coverage Form CG 00 01 Abandonment triggers the same “completed” status as finishing the contract, so an injury arising from work performed before the sub walked off can still be tendered under the CG 20 37.