Primary and non-contributory: what the GC is really asking for

The honest answer is that “primary and non-contributory” is the GC telling your carrier two things: you go first, and you don’t get to ask my carrier for help. That’s it. Four words on the exhibit, one endorsement on your policy, and a claim that lands entirely on your limits before the GC’s insurance is touched. It shows up next to the additional insured clause on almost every subcontract, and it’s the line most contractors skim because it sounds like lawyer filler. It isn’t. Here’s what it does, where it has to live on the policy, and what it costs you in limits. If a coordinator just bounced your certificate over it, the certificates page tells you what to send us.

Two words, two jobs

Primary is about order. When a claim tied to your work comes in and both your general liability policy and the GC’s policy could respond, primary says yours responds first. The GC’s policy waits.

Non-contributory is about sharing. Even after your policy pays, a carrier can normally look around for other insurance covering the same loss and ask it to contribute a share. Non-contributory takes that away. Your carrier pays, and it doesn’t get to send the GC’s carrier a bill for half.

Put together: your policy is the only policy on that claim until your limits are gone. The GC’s carrier is excess, sitting behind yours, and it likes that position very much.

Where it lives: the other-insurance clause

Every liability policy has an “other insurance” condition buried in the back. It’s the clause that says what happens when two policies cover the same loss. Under most standard GL forms, the default is that the policy is primary for the named insured’s own claims, and shares with any other primary insurance on a pro-rata or equal-shares basis.

The GC’s policy has the same clause. And on most standard forms, the GC’s clause says something useful for the GC: when the GC is an additional insured on someone else’s policy, the GC’s own coverage is excess. So the GC’s carrier is already trying to get behind you. The primary and non-contributory endorsement on your policy is what makes your carrier agree.

ISO publishes an endorsement for this, and the form number agents usually point to is CG 20 01. Some carriers write their own version or fold the wording into a broad-form additional insured endorsement. The wording varies, and the wording is what a coordinator reads when they ask for a copy. Two conditions usually ride on it: the primary treatment applies only where a written contract requires it, and only for the party that contract names. It’s not blanket generosity to the world. It’s blanket to whoever you’ve signed with.

Why the GC wants it

Because the GC’s carrier expects it. A GC running a site-prep package in Loveland with six subs has six policies underneath it, and its own carrier prices the GC’s policy on the assumption that claims arising from a sub’s work go down to the sub. If your policy shares instead of going first, the GC’s carrier pays part of your claim, and the GC’s loss history takes the hit. That’s why the wording is in the exhibit and why national GCs won’t strike it.

There’s a fairness argument in it too. If your John Deere 772GP takes out a fire hydrant during a grading pass, the GC didn’t do anything. Their name is on the lawsuit because their name is on the permit. Primary and non-contributory puts the cost on the outfit that was running the machine.

What it costs you

Not the endorsement charge, which is usually modest and sometimes nothing. The cost is limits.

When a claim tied to your work is tendered to your policy as primary, the GC’s defense and any payment come out of your occurrence limit and your general aggregate. Non-contributory means no other policy refills that pool. On a $1M/$2M policy, one bad afternoon in decomposed granite that undermines a neighbor’s foundation can use the whole occurrence limit on a job where you were one sub of eight, with the GC’s $5M policy standing untouched behind you. The math says the wording and the umbrella ask are the same conversation. The umbrella article covers when the $1M/$2M stops being enough.

The aggregate is the quieter cost. Three primary tenders in a year, none of them large, and your $2M aggregate is thinner going into the fourth job than the certificate suggests. A per-project aggregate endorsement is one answer to that. Ask whether your policy carries one.

What the certificate can and can’t say

The certificate’s description box can say “primary and non-contributory applies per written contract.” That sentence is true only when the endorsement exists. A coordinator who has been burned will ask for the endorsement itself, and the answer has to be a form, not a reprint.

What we don’t control is how the GC’s carrier reads a non-ISO version of the wording. Some accept a carrier’s proprietary endorsement. Some insist on ISO language or “equivalent” and then argue about equivalent. If the exhibit says “ISO CG 20 01 or equivalent,” ask the GC’s coordinator before mobilization whether the form on your policy passes.

GC exhibits vs public permits

A public permit usually stops one step short of a GC exhibit. Loveland is a clean example.

The city wants to be an additional insured on the GL and the auto. It doesn’t spell out primary and non-contributory wording on the permit page. A GC’s exhibit for the same grading and site prep crew will ask for the additional insured status and the primary wording and a waiver of subrogation, in one paragraph. Same policy, two levels of ask. The waiver of subrogation article takes apart the third piece. The GC exhibit article walks all nine clauses in order.

A table for the truck

What to ask before you sign

Three questions, in writing, to the GC. Does your carrier accept the primary and non-contributory endorsement my policy carries, or does the exhibit require ISO wording? Does the primary requirement extend to my auto and umbrella, or the GL only? And is there a per-project aggregate requirement, because that’s the clause that decides how much of my policy your claim can consume.

Then one question to us: which form is on the policy, and is it blanket or scheduled?

Where to go from here

If a GC just sent the exhibit and the certificate is due, the certificates page lists what to paste into the request so we check the form before anything goes out. If you have a policy and aren’t sure which primary wording it carries, that’s one of the first endorsements we mark up in a policy review. Excavation contractors running utility trenching on GC sites in Denver see this clause on every contract, and it’s easier to build the policy for it once than to chase it every job.

Serving businesses located in Colorado. Coverage is determined by the policy language and the carrier.