Volume 1, Draft Civil Code - Digital exhibitions & collections - McGill ...

OBLIGATIONS 499
§ - 2 Insurable interest
/ - Necessity of interest
1011 Marine insurance is absolutely null if the assured has no
insurable interest in the marine adventure concerned.
1012 The insurable interest must exist at the time of the loss
though it need not exist when the contract is entered into.
Where the assured has no interest at the time of the loss,
he cannot acquire one by any act or election after he is aware
of the loss. Where the subject matter is insured "lost or not
lost", the insurance is valid although the assured may not
have acquired his interest until after the loss, unless at the time
the contract was entered into the assured was aware of the loss
and the insurer was not.
1013 Gaming or wagering contracts are absolutely null.
There is a gaming or wagering contract where the
assured has no insurable interest and the contract is entered
into with no expectation of acquiring one.
Policies which contain conditions like "interest or no
interest", or "without further proof of interest than the policy
itself' are deemed to evidence gaming or wagering contracts.
The same is true of policies stipulating no benefit of salvage to
the insurer where there is in fact possibility of salvage.
// - Cases of insurable interest
1014 Any person interested in a marine adventure has an
insurable interest in it.
In particular, a person is interested in a marine adventure
when he stands in any juridical relation to the adventure
or to any insurable property at risk in it, in consequence of
which he may incur liability in respect of it, may benefit by the