If an insurance policy question is ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations and leads an applicant for insurance coverage to provide incorrect information, must the answer be resolved as against the insurer?

Ontario, Canada


The following excerpt is from Estate of Douglas James Kulp v. Cumis Life Insurance, 2019 ONSC 7495 (CanLII):

If a question is ambiguous and open to multiple interpretations and leads an applicant for insurance coverage to provide incorrect information, the ambiguity must be resolved as against the insurer: see Caverhill Estate v. Bank of Monreal, [1994] N.B.J 434 (NBQB) at paras 23 and 36, aff’d [1995 no.165 N.B.C.A]

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