Section 11 of the Insurance Act 2015: A Work in Progress on the Doorstep of the Marine Insurance Industry
| Author | Panagiotis Adamos |
| Position | LLM Maritime Law (Soton), LLB (AUTh) |
| Pages | 66-71 |
S.S.L.R
Vol.10
66
Section 11 of the Insurance Act 2015: A Work in Progress on the Doorstep
of the Marine Insurance Industry
Panagiotis Adamos*
Abstract
British marine insurance law has been codified over a century by the Marine Insurance Act 1906. And although
it becomes apparent that it embodies some basic principles of common law, on the other hand, it is also clear that
it could no longer reflect the commercial practice of the 21st century. The dawn of 12th August 2016 brought with
it the Insurance Act 2015, which led to an ongoing shifting tide. One of the most crucial changes deals with the
warranties’ regime, with Sect ions 9, 10 and 11 of the Insurance Act 2015 establi shing a more pro-insured
approach, where reliance by insurers on breaches of irrelevant warranties will be avoided. Section 11, in particular,
seems to clarify ongoing mischiefs of the warranties’ regime. Or does it? It also seems that old concerns about
uncertainties have given their place to new ones, and this is a comment on this legal development trying to briefly
point out some of the basic thoughts troubling today’s marine insurance business.
Introduction
he reform came into several stages after a ten-year program, leading finally to the
topic under discussion, basically the Law Commission’s July 2014 Report Insurance
Contract Law: Business Disclosure; Warranties; Insurers’ Remedies for Fraudulent
Claims; and Late Payment, where some controversial proposals under Chapter 18 were
embodied later on into Section 11 of Insurance Act 2015. But in order to understand better the
ongoing considerations, which Section 11 brought to life, it is important to refer to the new
status quo created under Section 10.
The key nature of a warranty has been codified through several cases by the courts
1
until finally,
it became part of the Marine Insurance Act 1906 (M.I.A. 1906). Still, under the Insurance Act
2015, the definition of a promissory warranty remained unchanged.
2
It is a promise undertaken
by the assured that some particular thing shall or shall not be done, or that some condition shall
be fulfilled, or whereby the assured affirms or negatives the existence of a particular state of
facts. Warranties are not defined, presumably because Lord Mansfield’s well-known dictum in
Bean v Stupart has been repeatedly cited, where warranty is ‘a condition on which the contract
* LLM Maritime Law (Soton), LLB (AUTh)
1
HIH Casualty & General Insurance Co Ltd v New Hampshire Insura nce Co [2001] EWCA Civ 735; The Good
Luck [1992] 1 AC 233.
2
Marine Insurance Act 1906, s 33(1).
T
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