Material suppression in life insurance requires disclosure only of facts that would influence a prudent insurer's underwriting decision.

In a life insurance contract, non-disclosure is material only if the omitted fact is important, essential, and relevant to underwriting, judged by whether it would influence a prudent insurer. Here, disclosure of an existing Aviva policy, together with supply of that policy copy, amounted to substantial disclosure of the insured's insurance position. The remaining undisclosed policies were of limited significance and did not affect the risk in a way that justified repudiation. The non-disclosure was therefore not material suppression, and repudiation of the claim was unsustainable.

---

---

Issues: Whether non-disclosure of certain other life insurance policies in the proposal form amounted to material suppression so as to justify repudiation of the life insurance claim.

Analysis: The governing principle is that a proposer must disclose facts that are material in the sense of being important, essential and relevant to underwriting the risk, and the touchstone is whether the omission would influence a prudent insurer. The disclosed proposal showed that one existing life policy with Aviva had been mentioned, though the sum assured was misstated, and the insured had supplied a copy of that policy to the insurer. The undisclosed policies were of comparatively insignificant value, the cover in question was a life policy and not a mediclaim policy, and the death occurred in an accident. On these facts, the disclosure made was substantial and sufficient to inform the insurer of the insured's existing insurance position. The omission to mention the remaining policies did not bear on the risk in a manner that would justify repudiation.

Conclusion: The non-disclosure did not amount to material suppression, and the repudiation of the claim was unsustainable; the appellant was entitled to the policy benefits.

Ratio Decidendi: In a life insurance contract, omission to disclose every other existing policy is not material where there has been substantial disclosure of an existing cover and the withheld information would not have affected the decision of a prudent insurer to issue the policy.

---