Signature of the insurance contract

In a judgment of 17 March 2011, the Court of Cassation recalled the content of article L. 112-3 of the insurance code: “if the insurance contract constitutes a perfect consensual contract as soon as the wishes of the insurer and the insured meet, its proof is subject to the drafting of a written document “.

The case law of the Court of Cassation does not require the insured to sign each contractual document submitted to him at the time of the subscription of the insurance contract (such as an annex for example or the general conditions of the insurance policy or its special conditions).

The signature of the specific conditions alone may mean, under certain conditions, the overall acceptance by the insured of the contractual documents that he has not signed.

The Court of Cassation accepts that the proof of such acceptance may result from a mention in the primary insurance policy, according to which the insured “accepts” or ” acknowledges having read and accepted the clauses contained in the annex attached to the policy n°…. “or” in the special conditions of which he has received the copy”, or “acknowledges being in possession of the Special Conditions and General Conditions of which he has received the copy”.

The Court of Cassation requires that the insured person demonstrate, in an unequivocal and unambiguous manner, the acceptance of unsigned documents.

This was affirmed by the Court of Cassation, for example, in a judgment of 3 March 2011 rendered by the 2nd Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation (appeal: 10-11826) :

Having regard to article 1134 of the Civil code ;
Whereas in order to refuse to apply the forfeiture clause provided for in the general conditions of the contract, the judgment holds that the insurer is unable to produce at the debates a contractual document signed and accepted by spouses X… concerning the general clauses of the contract to which the revocation clause relied is a part ;
That in ruling thus, while it follows from the productions that the special conditions signed by the insured were produced before the Court of appeal and stipulated that the insurance was concluded in accordance with the special conditions and the general provisions and annexes of which the subscriber acknowledged having received the full text, the Court of appeal violated the aforementioned text ; FOR THESE REASONS, and without the need to rule on the first and third branches of the second plea : QUASHES AND ANNULS, in all its provisions, the judgment rendered on 14 September 2009, between the parties, by the Court of appeal of Pau ; accordingly, returns the case and the parties to the state in which they were before the said judgment and, to be allowed, refers them to the court of appeal of Toulouse (…) “.

Similarly, it was ruled, in a judgment of the Court of Cassation dated 4 December 2008 (n ° 07-19919) that the referral clause must expressly mention that the insured acknowledges “having received and accepted” all the annexed documents :

“Having regard to article 1134 of the Civil Code ;
Whereas in order to refuse to apply the forfeiture clause provided for in the general conditions of the contract, the judgment holds that the insurer is unable to produce at the debates a contractual document signed and accepted by spouses X… concerning the general clauses of the contract to which the revocation clause relied is a part ;
That in ruling thus, while it follows from the productions that the special conditions signed by the insured were produced before the Court of appeal and stipulated that the insurance was concluded in accordance with the special conditions and the general provisions and annexes of which the subscriber acknowledged having received the full text, the Court of appeal violated the aforementioned text ;
FOR THOSE REASONS, and without the need to rule on the first and third branches of the second plea: QUASHES AND ANNULS, in all its provisions (…) »

The fact that the insurer lists the various contractual documents of which the insured is completely unaware of the content is insufficient to make the insured enforceable, failing to specify, in the text of the policy, that the insured acknowledged having accepted the entirety of the contractual clauses resulting from the General and Special Conditions.

The signature of the insured on the last page of the insurance policy is not sufficient to make effective against the insured any document not submitted and not accepted by the latter at the time of the subscription of the primary insurance policy.

WHAT TO REMEMBER : the simple signature of the insured on the last page of the insurance policy does not automatically imply full adherence to all the annexed documents mentioned in the policy.

9 October 2020 Signature of the insurance contract by the insurer In a judgment of 17 March 2011, the court of cassation recalled the content of article L. 112-3 of the ...