Home / Legal principles of life insurance / - Capacity to Contract
Both the assured and the insurer must have the legal capacity to contract. There are certain restrictions on contractual powers in certain circumstances and some of these are detailed below.
Minors
A minor in English law is a person under 18 years of age. Under English law it is possible for a minor to propose for a life policy although the minor can repudiate the contract before they attain age 18 years or within a reasonable time thereafter. Scottish law is different. It is likely that a contract entered into by a person under the age of 16 years would be void. In addition, anyone under the age of 21 can apply to the court to have any transaction they entered into aged 16 or 17 set aside if it is prejudicial. A transaction is deemed prejudicial where an adult exercising reasonable prudence would not have done it.
Mentally Disordered People
In general, a contract with a person of unsound mind is binding on him if his disability was not known by the other contracting party. He can, however, repudiate the contract if the disability was known to the other party. An insurer should therefore not grant a policy to a proposer whom he knows is of unsound mind.
The Insurer
The insurer must be authorised under the Insurance Companies Act 1982 to do long-term insurance business (life assurance, annuities, permanent health insurance) in the UK . This Act gives the government powers of supervision and control over life offices.
06 August 2008 17:27:22
An antibiotic developed from maggots may be used to fend off different types of bacteria including certain types of the deadly methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Fox news reported.
Students from Swansea undertook the study and they believe that maggots may now be used to fight superbug infections in hospitals.
Those with life insurance policies maybe interested to know that the team developed a drug called Seraticin that is made from secretions of green bottle fly larvae.
They now believe that they may be able to tackle up to 12 strains of the superbug and that it could be effective against E.coli and C.diff.
Live maggots have recently been used on patient's wounds to help fight MRSA by eating dead tissue, the Mirror reported.
UK life insurance policyholders have learnt that new research from the US has found that patients who are carrying MRSA for long periods of time are at an increased risk of infection and death.
06 August 2008 17:22:31
Those without life insurance policies will be pleased to hear about a proposed program that involves vaccinating children against flu in order to provide protection for the rest of the population.
Whilst the Daily Mail claimed that running the programme could cut flu infection rates by 70 per cent, the Daily Telegraph reported that "flu could be virtually wiped out if all under 16s were vaccinated against the disease".
A similar programe was considered and subsequently rejected in 2006 by the Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation, the NHS reported.
New research published in the Lancet this week suggested that the influenza vaccine did not provide as much protection as was previously thought.
In the study a group of 3,500 individuals were tested and it was uncovered that in those over 65 there was no link between the flu vaccination and the risk of those people contracting pneumonia.
UK life insurance provides cover in case of injury or illness.
05 August 2008 17:34:54
Those with and without life insurance policies may be interested to know that a trial of a vaccine for HIV patients which allows them to take breaks from their regular medication is planned, the BBC reported.
The trial, which was announced at the Aids 2008 conference in Mexico City, will involve 345 patients in both the US and Europe and the results are due by the end of 2009.
It is hoped that the vaccine could help alleviate side effects associated with the drugs currently used to treat the virus and may help delay the emergence of strains of HIV that are resistant to the drugs.
Dr Barry Peters, of Kings College London, who is leading the research in the UK, said: "A successful immunotherapeutic HIV vaccine would give patients and doctors enormous advantages over current treatments, both in developed and developing countries."
Whilst Dr Peters has qualified that the vaccine being trialled is not the "complete answer", it could go some way to helping produce a "full" vaccine.
UK life insurance provides policy holders with cover in case of illness or injury.
