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1975 Ins. L.J. 71 (1975)
Insurance Contract Interpretation: Issues and Trends

handle is hein.journals/inslj37 and id is 71 raw text is: Insurance Contract Interpretation:
Issues and Trends
By E. NEIL YOUNG, JOHN R. LEWIS, and J. FINLEY LEE
This article explores the issue of insurance contract interpre-
tation and the doctrines of law that are applicable to the
issue. It also reviews and seeks trends in the doctrinal ap-
proaches that are being employed by the courts to inter-
pret and expand the language and meaning of those con-
tracts. E. Neil Young is an assistant professor of risk
management, insurance and business law in the College of
Business of The Florida State University. John R. Lewis,
CLU, CPCU, is associate professor and chairman of risk
management, insurance and real estate in the College of
Business of The Florida State University. J. Finley Lee,
CLU, is the Julian Price Professor of Business Administra-
tion at the University of North Carolina.
Introduction
W HILE INSURANCE COMMISSIONER of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, Herbert Denenberg once stated over national
television that many insurance contracts, including fire policies and
homeowners contracts, are more difficult for the consumer to comprehend
than Einstein's Theory of Relativity. The hyperbole is well taken by
those persons intimately involved with the wording of insurance con-
tracts, be they the drafters of insurance contracts, regulators or con-
sumers. Even William F. Young, Jr., noted authority on the law of
insurance, has stated that . . . Seldom has the art of typography been
so successfully diverted from the diffusion of knowledge to the sup-
pression of it.1 An academic issue? No. Recent developments have
brought the issue of insurance contract wording and interpretation
directly into the limelight.
'William F. Young, Jr., Cases and Materials on the Law of Insurance (1971),
at p. 98.
Insurance Contract Interpretation

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