Primary and non-contributory

What it does when two policies overlap

Every liability policy has an “other insurance” clause that decides what happens when two policies could cover the same claim. Left to those clauses, your insurer and the sub's insurer can each argue the other should pay, or that they should split it — and while they argue, your policy and your loss history are in the fight.

“Primary” overrides that: the sub's policy agrees to go first. “Non-contributory” finishes the job: it agrees not to demand your policy contribute its share. Together they mean a claim arising from the sub's work is paid by the sub's insurer, in full, before yours is ever asked — which is the entire reason you required their coverage in the first place.

What actually happens without it

It is worth being concrete, because "the insurers argue" sounds like somebody else's problem. The general liability form's other-insurance condition says the policy is primary — except where other insurance is available to the insured on a primary basis for the same loss, in which case the two share. Depending on the wording, they share by equal shares until one is exhausted, or in proportion to their limits.

So on a loss caused by your sub's crew, with you named as an additional insured on their policy and holding your own, the default is not "theirs pays". It is "both pay". And a claim your policy paid part of is a claim on your loss run — the document your own carrier reads at renewal and your next owner asks for during prequalification. Your deductible or retention is consumed, and your loss history now carries a claim for work you did not perform. That is what primary-and-non-contributory is buying: not a better outcome for the injured party, but the difference between the sub's insurance being their insurance and it being a top-up on yours.

It does nothing on its own — the order matters

Here is the part that catches careful people. Primary-and-non-contributory is not standalone coverage. It amends how a policy responds for an insured under that policy. If you are not an insured on the sub's policy — no additional-insured endorsement, no status — then there is no coverage of yours on their policy for a P&NC clause to make primary. It is a modifier with nothing to modify.

Which gives you a quick sanity check that costs nothing. A certificate asserting primary-and-non-contributory in the description box while the ADDL INSD column sits blank is describing something that cannot exist. It is not usually a lie; it is usually somebody typing what the subcontract asked for rather than what the policy does. Either way it tells you to ask for the endorsements before the crew arrives, not after.

How it's granted (not by the certificate line)

You will most often see "primary and non-contributory" typed as free text in the DESCRIPTION OF OPERATIONS box. That is a summary somebody typed, and it is worth knowing there is nowhere else on the form for it to be: the ACORD 25 carries exactly two Y/N columns — ADDL INSD and SUBR WVD — and no primary-and-non-contributory column at all. Anyone who tells you to "check the P&NC box" is describing a form that does not exist.

The actual grant is in the endorsement. Many additional-insured forms carry primary-and-non-contributory wording in their own text, and some carriers issue a separate endorsement for it — CG 20 01 is the common ISO one. The certificate reports what somebody believes the policy does; the endorsement is the document that makes it so. Collect the endorsement.

Getting it in writing

Because P&NC rides with additional-insured status, ask for it in the same request — the endorsement showing you added AND that the coverage is primary and non-contributory:

Hi [Agent name],

We're the GC on [project]. Our subcontract with [Sub name] requires their general liability to be primary and non-contributory as respects [Your Company], with us named additional insured.

Could you send the endorsement(s) confirming both — the additional-insured form and the primary-and-non-contributory wording (often the same endorsement, sometimes a CG 20 01)? The endorsement pages, please, not another certificate.

Thanks,
[Your name]