Abstract
Insurance is a bilateral contract whose execution is premised on executory express promises of the insured called warranties, and the insurer’s implied promises called indemnity. Whereas the making of the warranty is a condition precedent to the inception of the contract the execution of the indemnity is dependent upon the warranty being exactly complied with. This gives rise to instances whereby the insured’s purpose of entering the contract are defeated thereby perpetuating unfairness against the consumer. Accordingly, in line with consumerism many countries including Nigeria, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand have had to reform the law of insurance warranty to mitigate unfairness to the insured, but Nigeria’s leaves much to be desired, and it seems to impede on insurance development in the country. This thesis seeks to propose a way forward.
Accordingly, the thesis traces the historical origin of insurance warranty, its cradle, practice, and reform in the UK, and some significant common law jurisdictions such as Australia, and New Zealand, with a view to pinpointing where and how Nigeria may have missed it. The issues with the traditional warranty and the approaches to its reform in the selected jurisdictions are evaluated. Surprisingly, in this regard, Nigeria appears to be in tandem with the others, except that insurance penetration is still exceptionally low, which in this thesis has necessitated an in-depth examination, where Nigeria’s exceptionalism is implicated as one of the main causative factors.
To resolve the issue, and since ‘normal’ approaches to reform appear to have failed, the thesis goes ‘out of the box’ to propose a hybrid model of reform that combines the strengths and modern approaches of three advanced common law jurisdictions - the UK’s, Australia’s, and New Zealand’s. These are blended with the traditional age-long exceptionalism of the Nigerian peoples to chart a way forward for the reform of Nigeria insurance warranty law.