Legal Term: INSURANCE, MARINE

Definition: contracts. Marine insurance is a contract whereby one party, for a stipulated premium, undertakes to indemnify the other against certain perils or sea risks, to which his ship, freight, or cargo, or some of them may be exposed, during a certain voyage, or a fixed period of time. 3 Kent, Com. 203; Boulay-Paty, Dr. Commercial, t. 10.

2. This contract is usually reduced to writing; the instrument is called a policy of insurance. (q. v.) 3. All persons, whether natives, citizens, or aliens, may be insured, with the exception of alien enemies. 4. The insurance may be of goods on a certain ship, or without naming any, as upon goods on board any ship or ships. The subject insured must be an insurable legal interest.

5. The contract requires the most perfect good faith; if the insured make false representations to the insurer, in order to procure his insurance upon better terms, it will avoid the contract, though the loss arose from a cause unconnected with the misrepresentation, or the concealment happened through mistake, neglect, or accident, without any fraudulent intention. Vide Kent, Com. Lecture, 48; Marsh. Ins. c. 4; Pardessus, Dr. Com. part 4, t. 5, n. 756, et seq.; Boulay-Paty, Dr. Com. t. 10.

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