| Award 1216

Award 1216 – Hull and machinery insurance of a fishing boat – Indemnification denial – Clause printed in indistinctive types – Insurer condemned – No measures of conservation taken by the insured – Partial indemnification. Following damage suffered by a fishing boat when alongside, the underwriter refused to pay out on the basis that the general provisions of the insurance contract stipulating that cover would not be in place in the absence of a navigation license which the insured did not have any longer Despite the fact that the clause in question appeared on page 1 of the contract, by the terms of article 112-4 of the Code of Insurances which applies to all marine insurances since 1994 and according to an established body of case-law, clauses of exclusion or forfeiture which do not appear in very visible types are null and void. Therefore, the insurer must indemnify the insured. However, in the absence of measures of conservation taken by the insured, by virtue of the article 172.23 of the same Code, it could not claim for payments corresponding to the worsening of the damage and the addition of various expenses.