Personal Responsibility for Intentional Conduct: Protecting the Interests of Innocent Co-Insureds Under Insurance Contracts
Date
2013
Authors
Adjin-Tettey, Elizabeth
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Alberta Law Review
Abstract
An insured who wilfully damages insured property
cannot seek indemnification under an insurance policy
because the loss was not a fortuitous one and likely
falls within an exclusion clause in the policy. This has
historically been referred to as the criminal forfeiture
principle, which holds that for public policy reasons a
wrongdoer should not be able to benefit from his or
her own wrongdoing. The question in situations like
this is whether an innocent co-insured should also be
barred from recovery for such loss. This article focuses
on developments in the law relating to recovery by an
innocent co-insured — namely amendments to the
British Columbia Insurance Act. The author explores
the history of the criminal forfeiture principle and also
examines the modern contractual approach to
interpreting insurance contracts. This article argues
that the modern approach emphasizes property and
contract law principles at the expense of protecting the
reasonable expectations of an innocent co-insured. The
author then examines a key provision in the British
Columbia Insurance Act that intends to provide
statutory protection for an innocent co-insured.
Despite some disadvantages, the author argues that
the benefits of the statutory protection outweigh any
potential weaknesses.
Description
This is a post-print version of this paper, published in the Alberta Law Review, (2013) 50(3) pp. 615-630.
An abbreviated version of this article was published as Elizabeth Adjin-Tettey, “Protecting the Interests of the Innocent Insured,” The Lawyers Weekly 31:33 (13 January 2012) 12.
Keywords
Citation
Elizabeth Adjin-Tettey, “Personal Responsibility for Intentional Conduct: Protecting the Interests of Innocent Co-Insureds Under Insurance Contracts” (2013) 50(3) Alberta Law Review 615-630.