AUSTRALIAN INSURANCE LAW A FIRST REFERENCE Fourth edition To the people of Bengkulu, Sumatra AUSTRALIAN INSURANCE LAW A FIRST REFERENCE Fourth edition Greg Pynt B Juris, LLB (UWA) Visiting Fellow, School of Law, University of Western Australia Barrister, Francis Burt Chambers, Perth, Western Australia LexisNexis Butterworths Australia 2018 LexisNexis AUSTRALIA LexisNexis Butterworths 475–495 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood NSW 2067 On the internet at: www.lexisnexis.com.au ARGENTINA LexisNexis Argentina, BUENOS AIRES AUSTRIA LexisNexis Verlag ARD Orac GmbH & Co KG, VIENNA BRAZIL LexisNexis Latin America, SAO PAULO CANADA LexisNexis Canada, Markham, ONTARIO CHILE LexisNexis Chile, SANTIAGO CHINA LexisNexis China, BEIJING, SHANGHAI CZECH REPUBLIC Nakladatelství Orac sro, PRAGUE FRANCE LexisNexis SA, PARIS GERMANY LexisNexis Germany, FRANKFURT HONG KONG LexisNexis Hong Kong, HONG KONG HUNGARY HVG-Orac, BUDAPEST INDIA LexisNexis, NEW DELHI ITALY Dott A Giuffrè Editore SpA, MILAN JAPAN LexisNexis Japan KK, TOKYO KOREA LexisNexis, SEOUL MALAYSIA LexisNexis Malaysia Sdn Bhd, PETALING JAYA, SELANGOR NEW ZEALAND LexisNexis, WELLINGTON POLAND Wydawnictwo Prawnicze LexisNexis, WARSAW SINGAPORE LexisNexis, SINGAPORE SOUTH AFRICA LexisNexis Butterworths, DURBAN SWITZERLAND Staempfli Verlag AG, BERNE TAIWAN LexisNexis, TAIWAN UNITED KINGDOM LexisNexis UK, LONDON, EDINBURGH USA LexisNexis Group, New York, NEW YORK LexisNexis, Miamisburg, OHIO National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Pynt, Gregory, John. Title: Australian Insurance Law: A First Reference. Edition: 4th edition. ISBN: 9780409345490 (pbk). 9780409345506 (ebk). Notes: Includes index. Subjects: Insurance law — Australia. Insurance — Australia. © 2018 Reed International Books Australia Pty Limited trading as LexisNexis. First edition 2008, Second edition 2011, Third edition 2015. The cover image has been reproduced with the kind permission of Simon Pynt. This book is copyright. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owner. Neither may information be stored electronically in any form whatsoever without such permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publishers. Typeset in HelveticaNeue and Sabon. Printed by Griffin Press, Australia. Visit LexisNexis Butterworths at www.lexisnexis.com.au PREFACE In 1766, Lord Mansfield delivered his seminal judgment on ‘utmost good faith’ in Carter v Boehm, an insurance dispute that arose out of a French attack on Fort Marlborough, a British trading post in Bengkulu, Sumatra. The fort is located in the centre of Bengkulu, a city of close to 350,000 people. It is presently in very good condition, thanks to restoration work completed by the Indonesian government in 1984. In October last year, 19 of us from Australia, Singapore, England and Indonesia attended a Conference in Bengkulu to acknowledge the origins and implications of this most important case in its 250th anniversary year. The Bengkulu Province Governor’s First Assistant formally opened the conference. A local member of the Bengkulu Heritage Society outlined the history of Fort Marlborough. There then followed thoughtful presentations by some of those among us on a range of ‘utmost good faith’ topics. During the conference we visited Fort Marlborough, where we were greeted with a ‘welcome to country’ — Bengkulu style. One of the promoters of the conference, Dr Allan Manning of the LMI Group, has produced a coffee table book that records the conference and its historical context with some text and a series of wonderful photographs. A visit to Bengkulu and a walk around Fort Marlborough helps with an appreciation of the importance of reading Lord Mansfield’s judgment by reference to the circumstances that gave rise to it, the context in which it was decided and its relevance today. Fort Marlborough is very close to Australia’s doorstep. You should consider a visit. Greg Pynt Francis Burt Chambers, Perth 23 July 2017 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author and the publisher are grateful to the holders of copyright from which extracts appear in this work, particularly the following: ■ Abacus; ■ Allens Arthur Robinson; ■ American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc; ■ Australian Government Publishing Service; ■ Cambridge University Press; ■ Commonwealth of Australia; ■ Haus Publishing; ■ Jefferson Law Book Company; ■ John Wiley, New York; ■ London Random House, Inc; ■ New York West, a Thomson Reuters business; ■ Oxford University Press; ■ Picador (Pan MacMillan UK), London; ■ Quartet Books; ■ Random House; ■ Stevens & Sons; ■ The Avalon Project; ■ The Hon Michael Kirby AC CMG; ■ The Law Book Exchange Ltd; ■ David Walsh of Mona (Museum of old and new art); ■ USA Penguin Books in association with J Cape, London; ■ Yale University.