BERNARDO ARGENTE

WEST COAST LIFE INSURANCE Co.

GR. No. 28499 March 19, 1928

FACTS: Vicenta de Ocampo died of cerebral apoplexy. Thereafter Bernardo presented a

claim in due form to the West Coast Life Insurance Co. for the payment of the sum of
P15,000 the amount of their joint life insurance policy. Following investigation con-
ducted by the Manager of the Manila office of the insurance company, it was apparently
disclosed that the answers given by the insured in their medical examinations with re-
gard to their health and previous illnesses and medical attendance were untrue. For that
reason, the Co. refused to pay the claim of Bernardo and wrote him to the effect that
the claim was rejected because the insurance was obtained through fraud and misrepre-
sentation.

ISSUE:

Was the concealment material and sufficient to avoid the policy?

RULING:

Yes. Concealment is defined “A neglect to communicate that which a party knows

and ought to communicate." It can fairly be assumed that had the true facts been dis-
closed by the assured, the insurance would never have been granted.

The assurer in assuming a risk is entitled to know every material fact of which the
assured has exclusive or peculiar knowledge, as well as all material facts which directly
tend to increase the hazard or risk which are known by the assured, or which ought to
be or are presumed to be known by him. And a concealment of such facts vitiates the
policy. It does not seem necessary that the suppression of the truth should have been
willful. If it were but an inadvertent omission, yet if it were material to the risk and
such as the plaintiff should have known to be so, it would render the policy void.