The falsity of any statement in the application for any policy covered by this chapter does not bar the right to recovery thereunder unless the false statement was made with actual intent to deceive or unless it materially affected either the acceptance of the risk or the hazard assumed by the insurer.
S.C. Code Ann. § 38-71-40
Effect of false statement in application
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Lanham v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of South Carolina, Inc. (2002)
Most recently applied in 636 F. App'x 871 - Evanston Insurance Company v. Agape Senior Primary Care, Inc (January 2016)
Former 1976 Code SECTION 38-35-180 [1947 (45) 322; 1952 Code SECTION 37-451; 1962 Code SECTION 37-451] recodified as SECTION 38-71-40 by 1987 Act No. 155, SECTION 1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Carolina Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.