No. 19-1503

QBE SEGUROS,

Plaintiff, Appellee,

v.

CARLOS A. MORALES-VÁZQUEZ,

Defendant, Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

[Hon. Bruce J. McGiverin, U.S. Magistrate Judge]

Before

Barron and Selya, Circuit Judges, and Katzmann, Judge.

Alberto J. Castañer, with whom Castañer & Cía P.S.C., Juan Rafael González-Muñoz, and González Muñoz Law Offices, PSC were on brief, for appellant. Manuel Sosa-Báez, with whom Ian P. Carvajal and Saldaña, Carvajal & Vélez-Rivé, P.S.C. were on brief, for appellee.

January 19, 2021

 Of the United States Court of International Trade, sitting by designation. SELYA, Circuit Judge. This appeal involves a dispute between a boat owner (who purchased a policy of marine insurance without disclosing, among other things, a prior grounding) and his insurance company. Resolving the appeal requires us to revisit the doctrine of uberrimae fidei — an entrenched principle of maritime law that imposes a duty of utmost good faith on the parties to marine insurance contracts. Concluding, as we do, that the district court faithfully applied this doctrine, we affirm the entry of judgment in favor of the insurer. I. BACKGROUND

We briefly rehearse the relevant facts and travel of the case. In 2011, defendant-appellant Carlos Morales-Vázquez (Morales) purchased an insurance policy for his forty-foot Riviera yacht (the Riviera Policy) from Optima Insurance Company, an entity later acquired by another insurance company, plaintiff-appellee QBE Seguros (QBE). As part of his application for this insurance policy, Morales left blank the spaces provided for answers to questions asking him to describe his prior boating history and all accidents related to any vessel he had previously owned, controlled, and/or operated. Morales renewed this policy (with QBE) in both 2012 and 2013.

In March of 2014, Morales applied for a separate insurance policy for his forty-eight-foot Cavileer yacht (the Cavileer Policy). Section seven of the application required

- 2 - Morales to disclose any accidents or losses sustained in connection with any vessel he had owned, controlled, and/or operated. This time, Morales indicated that he had been involved in an accident some eleven years earlier, explaining that the accident was a "propeller strike" and that "[p]ropellers were replaced [and] shaft and rudders rectified." But Morales did not see fit to mention that in January of 2010 he had grounded a forty-foot Riviera Offshore yacht in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.

The omission of the earlier grounding was not Morales's only oversight. Section six of the application for the Cavileer Policy required Morales to recount his boat-ownership and boat- operating history. When responding, Morales listed only two of the seven boats that he previously had owned and/or operated (a forty-foot Riviera Offshore yacht and a forty-foot Riviera Sport Fisherman). He omitted the remaining information called for by section six even though the application form plainly stated that "[i]f incorrect answers are provided (either by error, omission or neglect), I will be in breach of this warranty and the policy, if issued, will be void from inception."

Morales submitted the application for the Cavileer Policy to an insurance broker, who contacted an underwriter at QBE. The broker indicated that the putative insured wanted to obtain a quote the same day. Thirty-six minutes after receiving the application, the