sentation or In almost every instance in which a policy of sea insurance Of misrepreis effected, the underwriter must rely solely on the good allegatio falsi. faith of the assured for supplying him with full and true information of many of those facts on which the character and nature of the risk, and consequently the rate of premium, depend. It is to the assured, that all communications respecting the actual state of the property proposed for insurance, such as the time and place at which the goods are to be loaded, or the ship is to sail,—the force and equipment of the vessel, her then situation, and progress in her voyage, &c., are in the first instance addressed; he is thus the natural and sole depositary of much of that information, a full and true communication of which is absolutely essential to the underwriter, in order that he may form a right judgment of the nature of the risk and the proper rate of premium. In consequence of this inequality in information existing between the parties to the proposed contract of insurance, and the complete dependence of the one upon the information to be supplied by the other, this contract is received in law as eminently a contract uberrimæ fidei, to be made, i. e., in the utmost good faith; and, as a matter of public policy, its integrity and equitable character are guarded M. LL by this implied condition precedent, that the contract is free from misrepresentation or concealment, whether the same be due to fraud, negligence, accident, or mistake. The effect of this is that the contract is void, ipso facto, whenever misrepresentation or concealment has entered into the making of it on the side of either of the parties to it, the assured or the insurer.1 Representations: defined, A representation, in the technical sense which the word described, and bears in the law of insurance, may be defined to be:-A distinguished. verbal or written statement made by the assured to the Of positive representations. underwriter, at the time of the making of the contract, as to the existence of some fact or state of facts, tending to induce the underwriter more readily to assume the risk, by diminishing the estimate he would otherwise have formed of it. A statement of facts may either be,-1, a positive affirmation by the assured, as of his own knowledge and upon his own responsibility, that the facts represented either do or will exist; or,-2, a mere declaration of his belief, or expectation that such facts do or will exist; or,-3, a mere communication of information which he has received from others respecting them. It is to the first of these three classes of statement that the word representation, in its technical sense, is more properly applied; though, as we shall have occasion afterwards to observe, it may with certain limitations be extended also to the other two. For the sake of marking the distinction more clearly, we shall call those statements that positively affirm the actual, or future existence of material facts, i.e., of facts tending to alter the judgment the underwriter would form of the risk, positive representations; and denominate the two other classes respectively,—representations of belief, — and representations of information. First, a representation to take it by steps is "a verbal or written statement made by the assured or his agent to the 1 Blackburn v. Vigors, 55 L. J. (Q. B.) 347; 1 Phillips, 537; per Willes, J., Anderson v. Pacific Fire & Mar. Ins. Co., L. R., 7 C. P. 65. |