ABSTRACT
The slip 6.7 The contract of insurance is contained in the slip, but once a policy has been issued, that is the document containing the terms of the contract. As the slip represents a bundle of contracts, no subscribing underwriter can attempt to vary its terms by issuing a policy on different terms (unless the insured has positively accepted the new terms) in which case the insured would be entitled to seek rectification of the policy to accord with the slip. Frequently the slip will provide for the formal policy wording to be agreed by the leading underwriter: although it was held in Youell v Bland Welch3 and Punjab National Bank v De Boinville and others4 that the slip was inadmissible as an aid to the construction of the policy, that view has been modified by the Court of Appeal decision in HIH Casualty and General Insurance Ltd v New Hampshire Insurance Co Ltd5 in which it was held that the terms of a slip could be used as an aid to construction of a policy but that in the absence of a plea of rectification a slip could not be used to alter or contradict the construction of a policy which had superseded a slip.6
