ENGROSSED
Senate Bill No. 462
(By Senators Helmick, Kessler, Fanning, Ross and Sharpe)
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[Introduced February 11, 2000; referred to the Committee on
Banking and Insurance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section eight, article twenty-two,
chapter thirty-three of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
farmers' mutual fire insurance companies; allowing the
companies to insure property located outside of this state;
and providing minimum capital and surplus requirements for the
companies conducting insurance business outside of this state.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section eight, article twenty-two, chapter thirty-three
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 22. FARMERS' MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANIES.
§33-22-8. Kinds of coverage authorized.
(a) Every such company may issue policies of insurance on
property located anywhere in this State, signed by its president
and secretary, providing insurance against:
(1) Loss or damage to dwelling houses, stores and all kinds of
buildings and household furniture, goods, merchandise and chattels
of every description and all other property by fire, and allied
coverages, including lightning, aircraft, windstorm, tornado,
cyclone, hail, frost or snow, smoke, weather or climatic
conditions, including excess or deficiency of moisture, flood, rain
or drought, business interruptions, riot attending a strike or
civil commotion, riot, vehicle and by explosion whether fire ensues
or not;
(2) Loss or damage by insects or disease to farm crops or
products and loss of rental value of land used in producing such
crops or products;
(3) Loss or damage by water or other fluid to any goods or
premises arising from the breakage or leakage of sprinklers, pumps
or other apparatus erected for extinguishing fires, or of other
conduits or containers, or by water entering through leaks or
openings in buildings and of water pipes and against accidental
injury to such sprinklers, pumps, apparatus, conduits, containers or water pipes;
(4) Loss or damage to domestic farm animals by dogs or wild
animals.
(b) The commissioner may, for good cause shown or on
application of the company, limit the license of a company to make
insurance to any one or more of the perils or coverages set forth
in subsection (a) of this section.
(c) In addition any such company may apply to the commissioner
for an extension of its license, and upon complying with reasonable
standards established by the commissioner to assure the solvency of
such company and the protection of its policyholders, may in the
discretion of the commissioner be granted an extension of its
license to permit such company to issue policies of insurance on
risks located in this State insuring against one or more of the
following:
(1) Legal liability for the death, injury, or disability of
any human being, or for damage to property, excluding liability
resulting from the ownership, maintenance, or use of vehicles or
aircraft; and provisions for medical, hospital, surgical and
disability benefits to injured persons and funeral and death
benefits to dependents, beneficiaries or personal representatives
of persons killed, irrespective of legal liability of the insured, when issued as an incidental coverage with or supplemental to such
the liability coverage.
(2) Loss or damage to property by burglary, theft, larceny,
robbery, vandalism, malicious mischief or wrongful conversion, or
any attempt at any of the foregoing.
(3) Personal property floater insurance.
(d) A company insuring property located outside this state
must meet the capital and surplus requirements of section five-b,
article three of this chapter.