Contra Applicantem or Contra Proferentem Applicatio: The Need for Clarification of the Doctrine of Contra Proferentem in the Context of Insured- Created Ambiguities in Insurance Applications

I. Introduction

As Time magazine recognized when it declared "You" as the person of the year for 2006,1 consumers are playing an unprecedented role in creating and shaping the products they use. Although Time focused on the Internet's user-run juggernauts like Wikipedia, YouTube and MySpace, the expansion of the consumer's role is no less important in the insurance industry. Today, consumers of insurance can take charge of fulfilling their insurance needs in ways that were not available a decade ago. For example, insurance consumers can log on to the Internet and-seemingly as fast as they can say "Quote, Buy, Print"2-obtain an insurance policy. They can compare the rates of several different insurance companies at the click of a mouse.3 Consumers know that a mere "fifteen minutes could save [them] fifteen percent or more on [their] car insurance,"4and they can take comfort in the fact that getting insurance these days is "[s]o easy that even a caveman can do it."5 Although insurance companies have not forsaken the we'll-take-care-of-you-in- tough-times angle in their advertising strategy, it is clear that insurance companies have not ignored consumers' desire to take an active role in determining and influencing how they obtain insurance coverage.

Fortunately, the same Internet age that has provided consumers with increased opportunities to control their participation in the creation of the products they consume has also produced ways of ensuring that consumers make fewer mistakes in shaping their products. For instance, many web pages are coded so as to apprise the consumer of illogical or conflicting responses to questions and other entries. Notwithstanding the safeguards that insurance companies may establish to deter mistake-making when consumers complete electronic applications, it is logical to assume that increased consumer par...

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