Section First: General Provisions

Article 950

Art. 950 - Insurance is a contract by which a person (insurer) undertakes, in exchange for remuneration called premium or contribution, to provide certain benefits in the event that certain contingencies relating to the property or person of the insured occur.

Article 951

Art. 951 - The provisions of this title govern premium-based insurance policies but do not apply to mutual insurance and guarantee syndicates, insofar as they are contrary to the laws or regulations governing the latter types of insurance.

Article 952

Art. 952 - Maritime insurance remains exclusively governed by the Commercial Code and the laws specific to it.

Article 953

Art. 953 - All the provisions of this title which are not formally declared applicable notwithstanding any contrary conventions or under penalty of nullity, are only interpretive of the will of the parties and can be derogated from by formal stipulations.

Article 954

Art. 954 - The insurer may reinsure against the risks it has insured. Reinsurance may apply to either a specific insurance contract, a certain number of contracts, or all contracts concluded by the insurer. In all cases, the insurer remains solely liable towards the insured.

Article 955

Art. 955 - Insurance relating to property can only be a contract of indemnity; it must not place the insured, in the event of a disaster, in a financial situation better than if no risk had occurred.

Article 956

Art. 956 - When an insurance contract has been made for a sum exceeding the value of the insured thing, if there has been fraud or deceit on the part of one of the parties, the contract is null as to that party and damages may moreover be awarded to the party for whose benefit the nullity has been pronounced for this reason. If there has been neither fraud nor deceit, the contract is valid, but only up to the actual value of the insured objects, and the insurer shall not be entitled to premiums for the excess. Only the premiums due and the premium of the current year shall remain definitely acquired by him.

Article 957

Art. 957 - In matters of life insurance (insurance in the event of death and insurance in the event of life), the insured sums are definitively fixed by the policy. The fixing of the insured sums made in the policy can also not be contested in matters of insurance against accidents affecting persons.

Article 958

Art. 958 - A same person cannot contract several insurance policies with respect to a same thing and the same risks for a total sum exceeding the value of the insured thing. When several insurance policies are contracted without fraud either on the same date or on different dates, for a total sum exceeding the value of the insured thing, they are all valid and each of them produces its effects in proportion to the sum to which it applies up to the entire value of the insured thing. This provision may be waived by a clause in the policy adopting the rule of the order of dates or stipulating solidarity among insurers.

Article 959

Art. 959 - If the insurance covers only a part of the value of the insured thing, the insured is considered as remaining their own insurer for the excess and bears, consequently, a proportional share of the damage, unless it is expressly stipulated that, within the limits of the insured sum, the insured shall obtain complete compensation from the moment the damage does not exceed this sum.

Article 960

Art. 960 - Any person having an interest in the preservation of a thing may have it insured. This is particularly the case for the owner, the usufructuary, the hypothecary creditor, the privileged creditor, the antichresist (a creditor having a real security allowing them to collect the fruits and revenues of a property that is entrusted to them by their debtor, until the settlement of the debt) and, on the other hand, any person liable to be declared responsible for the loss or deterioration of the thing they hold.

Article 961

Art. 961 - Insurance may be contracted pursuant to a general or special mandate, or even without a mandate, on behalf of a determined person. In the latter case, the insurance benefits the person on whose behalf it was concluded, even if ratification did not occur until after the loss. Insurance may also be contracted for the account of whoever it may concern. This declaration shall be valid both as insurance for the benefit of the policy subscriber and as a stipulation for a third party for the benefit of the known or eventual beneficiary of the said clause. The subscriber of an insurance contracted for the account of whoever it may concern shall be solely liable for the payment of the premium to the insurer, but the exceptions which the insurer could have raised against him shall likewise be opposable to the beneficiary of the policy, whoever he may be.

Article 962

Art. 962 - The duration of the contract is fixed by the policy. It may be stipulated that in the absence of a declaration by the insured before the expiration of the current policy, the contract will be extended by tacit renewal. However, this renewal will only take effect from year to year, the insured retaining at all times the right to terminate the contract, notwithstanding any contrary stipulation.