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What is 'reasonable' disclosure?

The Woolf reforms have changed the rules for disclosure making 'document management' key for insurers, brokers and their clients.

On 18 January 2001, in the case of Manifest Shipping Co Ltd v
Uni-Polaris Shipping Co Ltd & ors (the Sea Star), the House of Lords
decided that the post-contractual duty of disclosure under s17 of the
Marine Insurance Act 1906 was limited to a duty of honesty.


The insured claimed a total loss of their ship, the Sea Star, as a result
of fire. The insurers disputed the claim and legal proceedings
started.


It emerged that the insured had not, in the lead up to trial, disclosed
reports on fires on two

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