Law of Insurance Warranties, The
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CHAPTER 11
Issues: Problems with the law on warranties and potential solutions for resolving them
In defence of the law on warranties
11.1 In 1796 JA Park argued1and though the condition broken be not perhaps a material one, yet the justice of the law is evident from this consideration: that it is absolutely necessary to have one rule of decision, and that it is much better to say that warranties shall in all cases be strictly complied with, than to leave it in the breast of a judge or jury to say, that in one case it shall, and in another it shall not. The very meaning of a warranty is to preclude all inquiries into the materiality or the substantial performance of it, and although sometimes partial inconveniences may arise from such a rule, yet upon the whole, it will certainly produce public salutary effects.2