In the case of Knights Templars' and Masons' Life Indemnity Company v. Jarman, 1902, the U.S Supreme Court dealt with a dispute over an insurance policy. The plaintiff was an insurance company that had issued a life insurance policy to Mr. Jarman's wife who later passed away. After her death, Mr. Jarman filed for the claim but it was denied by the insurer on grounds that Mrs.Jarman had misrepresented her health condition while obtaining the policy which constituted fraud under Kentucky law where they resided. The court held in favor of Mr.Jarman stating that although there were discrepancies in Mrs.Jarman’s statements about her health at different times, these did not amount to fraudulent misrepresentation as she might have been unaware of having any serious illness when she applied for coverage or could have misunderstood questions asked during medical examination process. Moreover, it was also noted by Justice Peckham delivering opinion for majority judges that even if such misrepresentations were made knowingly and intentionally by insured person themselves (which wasn't proven here), insurers still needed to demonstrate how exactly those affected their decision-making regarding issuance or pricing of policies before they could deny claims based on them.

The dissenting opinion in the Knights Templars' and Masons' Life Indemnity Company v. Jarman case argued that the majority's decision was incorrect because it failed to properly consider the terms of the insurance policy at issue. The dissent believed that, according to its interpretation of contract law principles, an insurer should not be allowed to deny coverage based on a technicality if there is no evidence suggesting fraud or misrepresentation by the insured party. In this particular case, they felt that Mr. Jarman had acted in good faith when he purchased his life insurance policy from Knights Templar and Masons’ Life Indemnity Company; therefore, his widow should have been entitled to receive benefits after his death despite any minor discrepancies found within their agreement.