Good Faith and Insurance Contracts
Page 495
CHAPTER 15
Examples of material facts
Examples of material facts
15.01
There has been some discussion above1 of the meaning of materiality and the manner in which a particular circumstance may be adjudged material. Given the frequency with which insurance disputes find their way before the courts and the long-established test of materiality, it is not surprising that there have been a great number of cases where various facts have been branded as material and immaterial. It is useful to review the array of cases and illuminate the nature of materiality by reference to these examples revealed by the authorities. If there is any guiding principle to be garnered from the authorities, it is that the more unusual the fact is material to the risk, the less it may be assumed that the insurer should know the fact, the more obviously material it becomes.2