CONCEAL

To hide; secrete; withhold from the knowledge of others. The word “conceal,” according to the best lexicographers, signifies to withhold or keep secret mental facts from another’s knowledge, as well as to hide or secrete physical objects from sight or observation. Gerry v. Dunham, 57 Me. 339. Concealed. The term “concealed” is not synonymous with “lying in wait.” If a person conceals himself for the purpose of shooting another unawares, he is lying in wait; but a person may, while concealed, shoot another without committing the crime of murder. People v. Miles, 55 Cal. 207. The term “concealed weapons” means weapons willfully or knowingly covered or kept from sight. Owen v. State, 31 Ala. 387. Concealers. In old English law. Such as find out concealed lands; that is, lands privily kept from the king by common persons having nothing to show for them. They are called “a troublesome, disturbant sort of men; turbulent persons.” Cowell. Concealment. The improper suppression or disguising of a fact, circumstance, or qualification which rests within the knowledge of one only of the parties to a contract, but which ought in fairness and good faith to be communicated to the other, whereby the party so concealing draws the other into an engagement which he would not make but for his ignorance of the fact concealed. A neglect to communicate that which a party knows, and ought to communicate, is called a “concealment.” Civ. Code Cal. 8 2561. The terms “misrepresentation” and concealment” nave a known and definite meaning in the law of insurance. Misrepresentation is the statement of something as fact which is untrue in fact, and which the assured states, knowing it to be not true, with an intent to deceive the underwriter, or which he states positively as true, without knowing it to be true, and which has a tendency to mislead, such fact in either case being material to the risk. Concealment is the designed and intentional withholding of any fact material to the risk, which the assured, in honesty and good faith, ought to communicate to the underwriter; mere silence on the part of the assured, especially as to some matter of fact which he does not consider it important for the underwriter to know, is not to be considered as such concealment. If the fact so untrulystated or purposely suppressed is not material, that is, if the knowledge or ignorance of it would not naturally influence the judgment of the underwriter in making the contract, or in estimating the degree and character of the risk, or in fixing the rate of the premium, it is not a “misrepresentation” or “concealment,” within the clause of the conditions annexed to policies. Daniels v. Insurance Co., 12 Cush. (Mass.) 416, 59 Am. Dec. 192.