Multiple insurance and other insurance clauses

Multiple insurance exists when the same interest is covered against the same risk by several contracts, often without the insured realizing it: a credit card and travel insurance, a company's policy and its client's, the tenant's insurance and the landlord's. French law sets three rules in article L. 121-4 of the Insurance Code. The insured must disclose to each insurer the existence of the other contracts. In a loss, each policy bought without fraud applies within the limits of its cover, and the insured may turn to the insurer of its choice, which then recovers the others' contributions from them. And the indemnity principle prevents the total received from exceeding the loss. Fraudulent multiple insurance, intended to profit, is sanctioned by nullity. Outside France, and in international programs, policies settle the question themselves through other insurance clauses with opposite effects: the pro rata clause shares the loss in proportion to limits, the excess clause places the policy behind all others, and the escape clause withdraws it altogether. Two excess clauses pointing at each other produce a conflict that courts resolve by sharing.