Fraud perpetrated in any contract can relieve the other party of the duty to perform. In other words, fraud or making false statements is legally unacceptable. Fraud includes any statement or act that is intended to deceive someone into entering into the contract. Fraud consists of:
- A Suggestion that something is true when in fact it is not
- A positive statement that something is not true when the person making the statement had no reasonable basis for saying it
- A person concealing something known to be the truth
- A promise made without any intention of performing it
- A person remaining silent when he had a duty to speak
- Any other statement or action intended to deceive
Oklahoma has statutes defining actual fraud, 15 O.S. § 58–59 that attorneys rely upon in defending against fraudulent insurance claims.
In Varn v. Maloney, 1973 OK 133, 516 P.2d 1328, the Oklahoma Supreme Court said the elements needed to prove fraud are:
- A false representation
- made with the knowledge of its falsity or recklessly without knowledge as to its truth or falsity
- as a positive assertion with the intention that it be acted upon by another
- actual reliance upon the statement
- injury or damage resulting therefrom.
Proving fraud in Oklahoma is not always easy to do and legal advice from an experienced attorney practicing in insurance litigation is usually needed. The most common approach to dealing with fraud in insurance claims in Oklahoma is recission.