Misrepresentation, Non-Disclosure and Breach ... - Law Commission

APPENDIX A
REFORMING THE LAW ON NON-DISCLOSURE
AND MISREPRESENTATION
A CHRONOLOGICAL ACCOUNT OF PREVIOUS REPORTS,
SELF-REGULATION AND STATUTORY REGULATION
A.1 In this Appendix we provide an outline of previous calls for reform on the law of
non-disclosure and misrepresentation, together with the measures of selfregulation
and statutory regulation introduced to address the problems. We do so
because we believe that some knowledge of these developments is important to
understanding the nature of the debate. 1
ENGLISH LAW REFORM COMMITTEE REPORT 1957
A.2 Insurance contract law was considered by the Law Reform Committee in 1957. 2
The Committee did not make formal recommendations, but suggested three
reforming provisions it felt could be enacted without legal difficulties:
(1) For the purposes of a contract of insurance no fact should be deemed
material unless it would have been considered material by a reasonable
insured.
(2) An insurer should not be able to rely on misrepresentation if the insured
could prove that the statement was true to the best of the insured's
knowledge and belief.
(3) An intermediary who arranged a contract of insurance should be deemed
for the purposes of the formation of the contract, to be the agent of the
insurer. Consequently anything disclosed to the intermediary would be
deemed disclosed to the insurer.
These suggestions were not implemented.
A.3 A similar report by the Law Reform Committee for Scotland made no proposals
for reform, 3 concluding that there was "…no demand in Scotland for any
alteration in the law with regard to the subject of our remit". 4
1
In this short account, we have to not attempted to provide a full history, and have omitted
some measures altogether, such as the Insurance Brokers Registration Council.
2 Fifth Report of the Law Reform Committee (1957) Cmnd 62.
3 Fourth Report of the Law Reform Committee for Scotland (1957) Cmnd 330.
4 As above. at para 25.
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