General Insurance✓ Verified · outline & fact-checked · Sep 2026Difficulty 2/5
An agent threatens to disclose an applicant's private medical information to his employer unless the applicant signs an insurance application. If the applicant signs under this pressure, the agreement is most likely:
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Answer & full 3-part explanation (select an option above, or peek)
Why A is correct
Genuine assent is a required element of a valid contract. When a party's agreement is obtained through duress — coercion or threats that leave no reasonable alternative — the assent is not genuine, and the resulting contract is voidable at the victim's option. Signing under the agent's threat to expose private information is duress, not a voluntary meeting of the minds. The agent's apparent authority is irrelevant to whether the applicant's consent was coerced.
Why the other options are wrong
- B) The defect is duress, not capacity; the applicant is an adult with capacity.
- C) Signing under threat is not voluntary assent; coercion destroys the genuineness of the agreement.
- D) Apparent authority concerns whether the agent could bind the insurer; it does not cure coerced consent.
Memory hook
A signature squeezed out by a threat is not a handshake. Duress makes the deal voidable.