Title 26.1 — Insurance

An insurance contract is a contract whereby one undertakes to indemnify another against loss, damage, or liability arising from an unknown or contingent event.

An insurer is a person who undertakes to indemnify another by an insurance contract and the insured is the person indemnified.

Anyone who is capable of making a contract, except as restricted by law, may be an insurer, and anyone except a public enemy may be an insured.

An insurable interest is an interest in property, or any relation thereto, or liability in respect thereof, of such a nature that a contemplated peril might damnify directly the insured, and may consist in: 1. An existing interest; 2. An inchoate interest founded on an existing i…

The sole object of insurance is the indemnity of the insured, and if the insured has no insurable interest, the contract is void.

An insurable interest must exist when the insurance takes effect and when the loss occurs but need not exist in the meantime.

The measure of an insurable interest in property is the extent to which the insured might be damnified by loss or injury of the property.

A carrier or depositary of any kind has an insurable interest in a thing held by the carrier or depositary as such to the extent of its value.

Repealed by S.L. 1987, ch. 357, § 2.

1. An individual of competent legal capacity may procure or effect an insurance contract upon that individual's own life or body for the benefit of any person. A person may not procure or cause to be procured an insurance contract upon the life or body of another individual unles…

A mere contingent or expectant interest in anything, not founded on an actual right to the thing nor upon any valid contract for it, is not insurable.

Any contingent or unknown event, whether past or future, which may damnify a person having an insurable interest or create a liability against the person may be insured against, subject to this title, with the exception of an insurance for or against the drawing of any lottery or…

A change of interest in any part of a thing insured, unaccompanied by a corresponding change of interest in the insurance, suspends the insurance to an equivalent extent until the interest in the thing insured and the interest in the insurance are vested in the same person, excep…

Each party to an insurance contract shall communicate to the other in good faith all facts within the party's knowledge which are or which the party believes to be material to the contract and which the other party has not the means of ascertaining and as to which the party makes…

"Concealment" means a neglect to communicate that which a party knows and ought to communicate.

A concealment, whether intentional or unintentional, entitles the injured party to rescind an insurance contract. An intentional and fraudulent omission on the part of one insured to communicate information of matters proving or tending to prove the falsity of a warranty entitles…

Neither party to an insurance contract is bound to communicate information of the matters following, except in answer to the inquiries of the other: 1. Those that the other knows. 2. Those that in the exercise of ordinary care the other ought to know and the former has no reason …

Materiality is to be determined not by the event, but solely by the probable and reasonable influence of the facts upon the party to whom the communication is due in forming the party's estimate of the disadvantages of the proposed contract or in making the party's inquiries.

Each party to an insurance contract is bound to know all the general causes which are open to the party's inquiry equally with that of the other and which may affect either the political or material perils contemplated and all general usages of trade.

The right to information of material facts may be waived, either by the terms of insurance or by neglect to make inquiries as to such facts, when they distinctly are implied in other facts of which information is communicated.

Information of the nature or amount of the interest of one insured need not be communicated unless in answer to inquiry, except as required to prepare the policy as prescribed by section 26.1-30-01.

Neither party to an insurance contract is bound to communicate, even upon inquiry, information of the party's own judgment upon the matters in question.

A representation, either oral or written, may be made before or at the time of issuing the policy.

A representation is to be interpreted by the general rules of contract interpretation. A representation as to the future is a promise unless the representation appears that it was merely a statement of belief or expectation. A representation cannot qualify an express provision in…

A representation is false when the facts fail to correspond with its assertions or stipulations. If a representation is false in a material point, whether affirmative or promissory, the injured party is entitled to rescind the contract from the time when the representation become…

An oral or written misrepresentation made in the negotiation of an insurance contract or policy by the insured or in the insured's behalf is material or defeats or avoids the policy or prevents its attaching only if the misrepresentation has been made with actual intent to deceiv…

When a person insured has no personal knowledge of a fact, the person may repeat information which that person has upon the subject and which that person believes to be true with the explanation that that person does so on the information of others, or that person may submit the …

A representation must be presumed to refer to the time of the completion of the insurance contract.

A representation may be altered or withdrawn before the effective date of the insurance but not afterwards.

When a mortgagor of property effects insurance in the mortgagor's own name providing that the loss is payable to the mortgagee, or when the mortgagor assigns an insurance policy to the mortgagee, the insurance is considered to be upon the interest of the mortgagor. The mortgagor …

This chapter applies to a modification of an insurance contract as well as to its original formation. The right to rescind an insurance contract given to the insurer under the provisions of this title may be exercised at any time prior to the commencement of an action on the cont…