Estate of Doe v. Paul Revere Insurance Group

LEVINSON, Justice.

This appeal affords us our first opportunity to construe the application of Hawai'i Revised Statutes (HRS) chapter 431, article 10A, part I (1993), which governs “individual accident and sickness [insurance] policies,” to the provisions of a “disability income insurance policy.” The outcome-dispositive question presented is whether, under Hawai'i law, the standard “incontestability clause” of such a policy precludes an insurer from denying total disability benefits caused by an insured’s HIV infection that arguably “manifested” itself prior to the policy’s effective date of…