i-law

Law of Insurance Warranties, The


Page 13

CHAPTER 3

The law relating to warranties prior to the Insurance Act 2015

Definition of a warranty

3.1 As originally conceived, warranties were designed to describe and delimit the risk that insurers were prepared to run.1 Soyer argues that warranties in insurance law serve two main functions.2 On the one hand, they are intended to protect the insurer against an alteration, by the assured, of the risk during the term of the policy. On the other hand, a warranty can assist the underwriter in assessing the scope of the proposed risk. As we have seen, prior to the Insurance Act 2015 (which took effect in August 2016), the law relating to warranties was set out in the Marine Insurance Act 1906. Warranties are the only legal term to be defined and regulated by the Marine Insurance Act 1906.3 S33(1) provides a partial definition of a warranty as follows:

A warranty, in the following sections relating to warranties, means a promissory warranty, that is to say, a warranty by which the assured undertakes that some particular thing shall or shall not be done, or that some condition shall be fulfilled, or whereby he affirms or negatives the existence of a particular state of facts.4

The rest of this document is only available to i-law.com online subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, click Log In button.

Copyright © 2024 Maritime Insights & Intelligence Limited. Maritime Insights & Intelligence Limited is registered in England and Wales with company number 13831625 and address 5th Floor, 10 St Bride Street, London, EC4A 4AD, United Kingdom. Lloyd's List Intelligence is a trading name of Maritime Insights & Intelligence Limited.

Lloyd's is the registered trademark of the Society Incorporated by the Lloyd's Act 1871 by the name of Lloyd's.