Facts
The dispute opposes the widow of an insured person to the foundation of free passage of a public limited company (the defendant). The defendant terminated the insurance contract for non-disclosure of an important fact, namely the insured person's illness. The widow contested the validity of the declaration of termination, invoking three grounds: the absence of a declaration of termination by the defendant towards her, the lateness of the declaration of termination, and the insufficiency of the content of the declaration of termination.
The court held that the declaration of termination of 15 July 1994 did not contain the necessary information to be considered valid, in particular the detailed description of the non-declared or inaccurately declared fact, as well as the question that had been the subject of an inaccurate response.
Considerations
The court examined the conditions for the validity of a declaration of termination of an insurance contract, referring to Article 6 of the Insurance Contract Act (IPA). It recalled that, to be valid, the declaration of termination must describe in detail the important non-declared or inaccurately declared fact, and mention the question that was the subject of an inaccurate response.
The court then analyzed the declaration of termination of 15 July 1994 and found that it did not contain…