Subjects:

Contract Law

Contents:

Part I: Introductory and general.

General propositions and definitions.

General propositions and definitions: disclosure.

Definitions: materiality

inducement.

Definitions: knowledge.

Part II: The duty of disclosure in negotiations for certain contracts termed uberrimae fidei.

Contracts uberrimae fidei: general.

Contracts of insurance.

Contracts for the sale of land.

Contracts of suretyship.

Releases, waivers and compromises.

Contracts for partnership.

Contracts to marry: separation deeds and agreements.

Special cases: cases in which a duty of disclosure is imposed by circumstances.

Affirmative answers available to the party charged.

Relief and remedies.

Part III: Concealment from courts, public authorities, and other third persons.

Part IV: The duty of disclosure incidental to relations of confidence.

Theory and policy.

Trustees and agents.

Company promoters and directors.

Statutory prospectus requirements.

Defences and relief.

Part V: The duty of disclosure incidental to relations of influence and advantage.

Undue influence.

Particular relations of influence.

Unfair advantage.

Particular relations of advantage.

Defences and relief.

Spencer-Bowyer's Actionable Non-Disclosure was published in 1915 and was the third of a remarkable series of classics the author wrote. There has never been a second edition of this book and after 70 years, many passages of the text have required drastic re-writing in view of the volume of case law by the co-authors Turner and Sutton.

There are however, considerable passages which still fully retain their original zest and value, and the authors have not attempted in these places, to re-write in their own words what Spencer-Bowyer said so well in his. One of the main difficulties has been the fact the material included in this work is not readily classifiable as all belonging to one subject.

The text as a second edition gives recognitions to these differences and falls into two very distinct halves, one on the duty of disclosure arising in the negotiation of contracts uberrimae fidei, the other on disclosure as between persons standing in relations of confidence, influence or advantage one to the other. These two classes of duties of 'non-disclosure' exhibit many dissimilarities, and the question arises, how did these two topics ever come to be dealt with in one book? The answer is a historical one; Spencer Bowyer put them both into one book, and this volume is a new edition of that work.