INSURANCE CONTRACT [POLICY] LANGUAGE -- SOME HISTORY

COVERAGE CLAUSE OF LATE              14th CENTURY ITALIEN                         MARITIME POLICY

            Michael Sean Quinn, Ph.D., J.D. Etc. mquinn@msqlaw.com,                                                                      (512) 656-0503                                                                                                         Insurance Afficianado 

Here is the coverage language of a policy issued in Florence in 1397:

Covered Perils: "of God, the seas, of nations, fire, jettisons restraints of lords [perhaps princes?] or peoples, or any other person, or letters marque, of arrest, and of every other case, peril, chance, impediment or mishap, which in any way could occur, or might have occurred, no matter how or under what conditions the cases might occur, excepting only what concerns customs dues and ballast [perhaps stowage]."

This language is quoted in Harold E. Raynes, A HISTORY OF BRITISH INSURANCE 10 (2nd Ed. 1964). The author states that the probably meaning of some of these terms approximate meanings standardly found in "the sixteenth-century marine insurance policy adopted in the Office of Insurance in London, and afterward incorporated in the Lloyd's policy based thereon." Id at 10-11.