Assault and Battery Sublimit or Exclusion

Assault and battery provisions respond to physical altercations. In senior care they matter for a reason unique to the setting: residents with dementia sometimes strike staff or other residents, and staff sometimes use physical redirection. Many forms sublimit or exclude these claims, and the wording usually extends to allegations pleaded as negligent supervision arising out of the same incident.

In memory care this is not an edge case, it is the everyday claim profile. A resident with advanced dementia who injures another resident produces a claim that is genuinely a foreseeable consequence of a diagnosed condition the facility accepted, and plaintiff counsel will plead it as negligent assessment, negligent placement, and inadequate supervision. If your form pulls anything arising out of assault or battery into a five-figure or low-six-figure sublimit regardless of how it is pleaded, that is the effective limit for a core memory care exposure. Read the pleading language in the endorsement, not just the sublimit number, because the phrase regardless of how pleaded is what does the damage.

Memory care operators should treat this as a coverage-quality question rather than a price question. Two programs at the same premium can differ enormously here, and the difference does not appear on the declarations page.