Definitions

  1. Law
  2. Georgia Code
  3. Insurance
  4. Insurers Rehabilitation and Liquidation
  5. General Provisions
  6. Definitions

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As used in this chapter, the term:

  1. "'Ancillary state" means any state other than a domiciliary state.
  2. "Creditor" means a person having any claim, whether matured or unmatured, liquidated or unliquidated, secured or unsecured, absolute, fixed, or contingent.
  3. "Delinquency proceeding" means any proceeding instituted against an insurer for the purpose of liquidating, rehabilitating, reorganizing, or conserving such insurer and any summary proceeding under Code Section 33-37-9."Formal delinquency proceeding" means any liquidation or rehabilitation proceeding.
  4. "Doing business" includes any of the following acts, whether effected by mail or otherwise:
    1. The issuance or delivery of contracts of insurance to persons resident in this state;
    2. The solicitation of applications for such contracts or other negotiations preliminary to the execution of such contracts;
    3. The collection of premiums, membership fees, assessments, or other consideration for such contracts;
    4. The transaction of matters subsequent to execution of such contracts and arising out of them; or
    5. Operating under a license or certificate of authority, as an insurer, issued by the Department of Insurance.
  5. "Domiciliary state" means the state in which an insurer is incorporated or organized; or, in the case of an alien insurer, its state of entry.
  6. "Fair consideration" means:
    1. When in exchange for property or obligation as a fair equivalent therefor and in good faith, property is conveyed, services are rendered, an obligation is incurred, or an antecedent debt is satisfied; or
    2. When property or obligation is received in good faith to secure a present advance or antecedent, debt in amount not disproportionately small as compared to the value of the property or obligation obtained.
  7. "Federal home loan bank" means a federal home loan bank established under the federal Home Loan Bank Act, 12 U.S.C. Section 1421, et seq.
  8. "Foreign country" means any other jurisdiction not in any state.
  9. "General assets" means all property, real, personal, or otherwise, not specifically mortgaged, pledged, deposited, or otherwise encumbered for the security or benefit of specified persons or classes of persons.As to specifically encumbered property, general assets includes all such property or its proceeds in excess of the amount necessary to discharge the sum or sums secured thereby.Assets held in trust and on deposit for the security or benefit of all policyholders or all policyholders and creditors in more than a single state shall be treated as general assets.
  10. "Guaranty association" means the Georgia Insurers Insolvency Pool created by Chapter 36 of this title, the Georgia Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Association created by Chapter 38 of this title, and any other similar entity now or hereafter created by the General Assembly for the payment of claims of insolvent insurers."Foreign guaranty association" means any similar entities now in existence in or hereafter created by the legislature of any other state.
  11. "Insolvency" or "insolvent" means:
    1. For an insurer issuing only assessable fire insurance policies:
      1. The inability to pay any obligation within 30 days after it becomes payable; or
      2. If an assessment is made within 30 days after an obligation becomes payable, the inability to pay such obligation 30 days following the date specified in the first assessment notice issued after the date of loss; and
    2. For any other insurer, the inability to pay its obligations when they are due, or when its admitted assets do not exceed its liabilities plus the greater of:
      1. Any capital and surplus required by law for its organization; or
      2. The total par or stated value of its authorized and issued capital stock.

      For purposes of this paragraph, "liabilities" shall include, but not be limited to, reserves required by statute or by regulations or specific requirements imposed by the Commissioner upon a subject company at the time of admission or subsequent thereto.

  12. "Insurer" means any person who has done, purports to do, is doing, or is licensed to do an insurance business and is or has been subject to liquidation, rehabilitation, reorganization, supervision, the authority of, or conservation by any state insurance regulatory official.For purposes of this chapter, any other persons included under Code Section 33-37-2 shall be deemed to be insurers.
  13. "Insurer-member" means an insurer who is a member of a federal home loan bank.
  14. "Preferred claim" means any claim with respect to which the terms of this chapter accord priority of payment from the general assets of the insurer.
  15. "Receiver" means receiver, liquidator, rehabilitator, or conservator as the context requires.
  16. "Secured claim" means any claim secured by mortgage, trust deed, pledge, deposit as security, escrow, or otherwise, but not including special deposit claims or claims against general assets.The term also includes claims which have become liens upon specific assets by reason of judicial process.
  17. "Special deposit claim" means any claim secured by a deposit made pursuant to statute for the security or benefit of a limited class or classes of persons, but not including any claim secured by general assets.
  18. "State" means any state, district, or territory of the United States.
  19. "Transfer" shall include the sale and every other and different mode, direct or indirect, of disposing of or of parting with property, an interest therein, the possession thereof or of fixing a lien upon property or upon an interest therein, whether absolutely or conditionally, voluntarily, or by or without judicial proceedings.The retention of a security title to property delivered to a debtor shall be deemed a transfer suffered by the debtor.

(Code 1981, §33-37-3, enacted by Ga. L. 1991, p. 1424, § 7; Ga. L. 2015, p. 377, § 2-1/HB 552; Ga. L. 2016, p. 816, § 1/HB 883; Ga. L. 2019, p. 386, § 131/SB 133.)

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, deleted former paragraph (2), which read: "'Commissioner' means the Commissioner of Insurance."; redesignated former paragraphs (3) through (7.1) as present paragraphs (2) through (7), respectively; substituted "Department of Insurance" for "Insurance Department" in subparagraph (4)(E); added "and" at the end of division (11)(A)(ii); substituted a period for "; and" at the end of division (11)(B)(ii); deleted former subparagraph (11)(C), which read: "As to any insurer licensed to do business in this state as of July 1, 1991, which does not meet the standard established under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph, for a period not to exceed three years from July 1, 1991, the inability to pay its obligations when they are due or that its admitted assets do not exceed its liabilities plus any required capital contribution ordered by the Commissioner under provisions of this title."; and redesignated former paragraphs (12.1) through (18) as present paragraphs (13) through (19), respectively.

Cross references.

- Venue of actions against insurance companies generally, § 33-4-1.

Code Commission notes.

- Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 2019, a quotation mark was added at the beginning of paragraph (19).

Law reviews.

- For note discussing problems with venue in Georgia, and proposing statutory revisions to improve the resolution of venue questions, see 9 Ga. St. B.J. 254 (1972).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Reciprocal state.

- Arizona is a reciprocal state as Arizona has adopted and substantially put into effect the equivalent of certain key provisions found in O.C.G.A. § 33-37-1 et seq. Smith v. Farm & Home Life Ins. Co., 269 Ga. 709, 506 S.E.2d 104 (1998).

RESEARCH REFERENCES

C.J.S.

- 44 C.J.S., Insurance, § 267 et seq.


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