Barth v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.

I respectfully dissent. The jury should have been instructed that a misrepresentation is not material unless the insurer somehow could have relied on it. I would reverse and remand for a new trial.

It is incorrect to say that “fraud” has no application to this case. The clause upon which State Farm relies to void this policy is captioned “Concealment or Fraud.” Innocent misrepresentations are not enough; the misrepresentations must be fraudulent or something like it. We should deal with a “Concealment or Fraud” clause carefully. In the context of common-law fraud, the law presumes that…