ABSTRACT
A contract of marine insurance is uberrimae fidei or, as enunciated in s 17 of the Marine Insurance Act, 'a contract based upon the utmost good faith'. The notion of utmost good faith, the cardinal principle governing the marine insurance contract, is a well established doctrine derived from the celebrated case of Carter v Boehm (1766) 3 Burr 1905, decided long before the inception of the Act. With the codification of the law, the principle found expression in ss 17-20: in s 17 is presented the general duty to observe the utmost good faith, with the following sections introducing particular aspects of the doctrine, namely, the duty of the assured (s 18) and the broker (s 19) to disclose material circumstances, and to avoid making misrepresentations (s 20).
