A licensed insurance producer appointed as insurance producer by an insurer shall, in any controversy between the insured or the insured's beneficiary and the insurer, be held to be the agent of the insurer that issued the insurance solicited or applied for, anything in the application or policy to the contrary notwithstanding; and a broker licensed to transact insurance business in this state, in any controversy between the insured or the insured's beneficiary and the insurer issuing the insurance through its licensed insurance producer at request of the broker, shall be held to be the agent of the insured, anything in the application or policy to the contrary notwithstanding, unless under particular circumstances it is found that the broker is representing the insurer. This section shall not apply as to surplus line brokers, nor as to acts of the insurance producer in fraud or attempted fraud of the insurer or acts of the broker in fraud or attempted fraud of the insured.
History: Laws 1984, ch. 127, § 353; 2016, ch. 89, § 60.
ANNOTATIONSThe 2016 amendment, effective July 1, 2017, replaced "agent" and "broker" with "insurance producer" throughout the section; in the catchline, added "they"; in the first sentence, deleted "Any" and added "A", after "between the insured or", deleted "his" and added "the insured's", after "agent of the insurer", deleted "which" and added "that", after "notwithstanding; and", deleted "any" and added "a", after "controversy between", deleted "any" and added "the", and after "insured or", deleted "his" and added "the insured's".
Severability. — Laws 2016, ch. 89, § 71 provided that if any part or application of Laws 2016, ch. 89 is held invalid, the remainder or its application to other situations or persons shall not be affected.
Clause prohibiting waiver by agent ineffective. — A clause in an insurance application prohibiting a waiver of conditions in the application except by an endorsement of an officer of the insurer could not operate to prevent the waiver by the insurer's agent of the conditions in the application requiring the insured to notify the insurer of his changed health and conditioning delivery of the policy on the insured's health remaining the same prior to delivery of the policy where the insurer's agent requested payment of the insurance premium after the insured had notified the agent of his changed health. Jackson Nat'l Life Ins. Co. v. Receconi, 1992-NMSC-019, 113 N.M. 403, 827 P.2d 118.