Senate Bill No. 512

(By Senator Hunter)

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[Introduced February 7, 2006; referred to the Committee

on Banking and Insurance; and then to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-4-21, relating to prohibiting insurers offering liability coverage from denying, refusing to renew or imposing an increased premium for coverage because the person to be covered is a dog owner and owns a particular breed of dog; and providing exceptions.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-4-21, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
§33-4-21. Denial of liability coverage based on dog ownership.
(a) No insurer authorized to write liability coverage may deny, refuse to renew or impose an increased premium for, coverage under a liability insurance policy because the person to be covered is a dog owner and owns a particular breed of dog.
(b) (1) An insurer authorized to write liability insurance may deny, refuse to renew or impose an increased premium for, coverage under a liability insurance policy because the person to be covered is a dog owner only if the dog owner knows that his or her dog has been used in the commission of a crime or that his or her dog previously injured a person, domestic animal or property.
(2) An insurer may not deny coverage, refuse to renew or impose an increased premium for coverage under this subsection if the dog is used by a law-enforcement agency and the dog injures a crime suspect while the dog is performing law enforcement functions.
(c) This section applies to insurance policies that are issued or renewed on or after the effective date of this section.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit insurers offering liability coverage from denying, refusing to renew or imposing an increased premium for coverage because the person to be covered is a dog owner and owns a particular breed of dog.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.