Article 1. Concealment of California Insurance Code >> Division 1. >> Part 1. >> Chapter 3. >> Article 1.

Neglect to communicate that which a party knows, and ought to communicate, is concealment.

Concealment, whether intentional or unintentional, entitles the injured party to rescind insurance.

Each party to a contract of insurance shall communicate to the other, in good faith, all facts within his knowledge which are or which he believes to be material to the contract and as to which he makes no warranty, and which the other has not the means of ascertaining.

Neither party to a contract of insurance is bound to communicate information of the matters following, except in answer to the inquiries of the other: 1. Those which the other knows. 2. Those which, in the exercise of ordinary care, the other ought to know, and of which the party has no reason to suppose him ignorant. 3. Those of which the other waives communication. 4. Those which prove or tend to prove the existence of a risk excluded by a warranty, and which are not otherwise material. 5. Those which relate to a risk excepted from insurance, and which are not otherwise material.

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 his estimate of the disadvantages of the proposed contract, or in making his inquiries.

Each party to a contract of insurance is bound to know:
  (a) All the general causes which are open to his inquiry equally with that of the other, and which may affect either the political or material perils contemplated.
  (b) All the general usages of trade.

The right to information of material facts may be waived, either (a) by the terms of insurance or (b) by neglect to make inquiries as to such facts, where they are distinctly 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 an inquiry, except as prescribed by section 381, or by the provisions of the insurance contract if such provisions are prescribed by this code as part of a standard form.

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 the insurer to rescind.

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