Glossary

Consequential bodily injury (BI) suits are a type of lawsuit insured by the employers liability coverage of a workers compensation policy. In this type of legal action, a member of the injured worker's family purports to have an injury that directly results from the injury to the employee. Often, mental injuries are alleged. Legislative action in many states has narrowed the applicability of this type of lawsuit.

Consequential damages are an indirect result of a direct loss. Lost profit, lost rents, and lost business opportunities are examples of consequential damages that could be incurred as a result of a direct physical loss to property. Consequential damages are a troublesome risk for most businesses because of the lack of a ceiling on the amount of the loss.

A consequential loss arises as a result of direct damage to property—for example, loss of rent. Some types of consequential loss are insurable under standard direct damage or time element coverage forms; others are not.

A conservator is a person or organization appointed by a court of law to manage an insurer that is financially impaired or in danger of insolvency.

Consideration is something of value that is bargained for and mutually exchanged to bind a contract; it is also payment for an annuity. Consideration is the benefit that each party receives or expects to receive when entering into a contract. Consideration is often monetary in nature, but it can be a promise to perform a specific act or a promise to refrain from doing something. For a contract or agreement to be legally binding, each party to the contract must receive some type of consideration.

The person or company that is physically and administratively responsible for accepting the goods at final delivery is called the consignee.

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1985 is a federal law giving workers and their families who lose their health insurance benefits after leaving a job the right to continue receiving those benefits. COBRA requires that group health insurance plans sponsored by employers with 20 or more employees in the prior year offer employees and their families an opportunity for a temporary, 18-month extension of health coverage, when such coverage would normally end. Qualified individuals must pay the entire premium that would otherwise be paid by the employer, plus a 2 percent administrative fee. Generally, only about 10 percent of workers eligible for COBRA benefits elect them, usually because they are unable to afford the cost following the loss of a job.

Consolidation is combining the financial results of a subsidiary company with its shareholder, resulting in the elimination of intercompany accounting entries. Transactions between affiliates offset each other. It is also the filing of a single income tax return for all companies within a corporate group.

A constructability review describes a process of reviewing construction project documents to identify potential problems, conflicts, or deficiencies that may result from constructing a building or structure as designed. These reviews can be general in nature or can focus on identifying specific types of problems, such as safety or environmental issues.

Under the Clean Air Act (CAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can establish a construction ban by disapproving an area's planning requirements for correcting nonattainment. A construction ban prohibits the construction or modification of any major stationary source of the pollutant for which the area is in nonattainment.