About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


1975 Ins. L.J. 71 (1975)
Insurance Contract Interpretation: Issues and Trends

handle is hein.journals/inslj37 and id is 71 raw text is: Insurance Contract Interpretation: Issues and Trends By E. NEIL YOUNG, JOHN R. LEWIS, and J. FINLEY LEE This article explores the issue of insurance contract interpre- tation and the doctrines of law that are applicable to the issue. It also reviews and seeks trends in the doctrinal ap- proaches that are being employed by the courts to inter- pret and expand the language and meaning of those con- tracts. E. Neil Young is an assistant professor of risk management, insurance and business law in the College of Business of The Florida State University. John R. Lewis, CLU, CPCU, is associate professor and chairman of risk management, insurance and real estate in the College of Business of The Florida State University. J. Finley Lee, CLU, is the Julian Price Professor of Business Administra- tion at the University of North Carolina. Introduction W HILE INSURANCE COMMISSIONER of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Herbert Denenberg once stated over national television that many insurance contracts, including fire policies and homeowners contracts, are more difficult for the consumer to comprehend than Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The hyperbole is well taken by those persons intimately involved with the wording of insurance con- tracts, be they the drafters of insurance contracts, regulators or con- sumers. Even William F. Young, Jr., noted authority on the law of insurance, has stated that . . . Seldom has the art of typography been so successfully diverted from the diffusion of knowledge to the sup- pression of it.1 An academic issue? No. Recent developments have brought the issue of insurance contract wording and interpretation directly into the limelight. 'William F. Young, Jr., Cases and Materials on the Law of Insurance (1971), at p. 98. Insurance Contract Interpretation