### EY GENERAL EWAS

March 13, 19%
Hon. J. Byron Saunders, Chairman Board of Insurance Commissioners International Life Building Austin, Texas Opinion No. S-191 Re: Can county mutual insurance companies write accidental death policies. Dear Mr. Saunders:

You have asked for the opinion of this office as to whether or not county mutual insurance companies can write accidental death policies.

Articles 17.01 and 17.25 of the Texas Insurance Code limit county mutual insurance companies as to the types of properties which maybe insured, and as to the types of protection offered the policyholder.

Article 17.01 specifically limits the subject matter of insurance, and reads in part as follows:

“Unless they are restricted by their charters, they maywrite insurance against said hazards:

“(a) Onboth rural and urban dwellings and attendant outhouses and yard buildings and all their contents for home and personal use -- including family vehicles, musical instruments and libraries;

“(b) Onbarns and other farm, dairy, truck garden, hennery and ranch buildings and improvements of every description;

“(Cl On all vehicles, harness, implements, tools and machinery of every kind and description used on and about farms, truck gardens, dairies, henneries or ranches;Hon. J. Byron Saunders, page 2 (S-191)



### “(a) On all fruits and products, other than growing crops, and all fowls, domestic animals and livestock of every description, produced, raised, grown, neries, farms, kept or used on truck gardens, henranches and dairies; and l’(e) On church houses, county school houses, country lodge rooms and country recreation halls, other than road houses and public dance halls and their contents.”

to Section 1 of Article 17.25 specifically refers back Article 17.01, and reads as follows:

“Section 1. Rew. County Mutual insurance companies operating under the provisions of this Chapter shall be authorized to write insurance against loss or damage from any hazard provided therein or that any other fire or windstorm insurance company operating in Texas maywrite on property described in Article 17.01 of this Chapter. Countv -insurance cm ouawe to write casualtv lines for statewide o+.eration mav rite al& Lines of automobile insurance, provided thzt no such company shall assume a risk on any one hazard greater than five (544 per cent of its assets unless such excess shall be promptly reinsured.& The underlined phrase, supra, added by Senate Bill 

### 15 of the 54th Legislature, does not embrace accident insurance, nor does it authorize a county.mutual to engage in the casualty field generally, but rather, casualty lines with limitations. (See Attorney General’s Opinion No. S-168 to the effect that county mutual insurance companies maywrite liability insurance on automobile s. )

Section 1 of Article 17.25 was amended by Senate Bill 15 of the 54th Legislature, and the caption reads in part as follows:

‘1.

. by amending Section 1 of Article 17.25 of the Code si as to provide that in addition to lines heretofore authorized, county mutual insurance companies by qualifying maywrite all lines of automobile insurance a -tatlou.

. . .‘I*
* Emphasis added.

### Hon. J. Byron Saunders,page 3 (s-191)



### Because of the specificlimitationsof Articles 17.01 and 

### 1725, it is clearthat the Legislaturedid not intendto authorizesuchpolicies,and it is the opinion of this officethat countymutualinsurancecompaniescannot write accidentaldeathpolicieson the lives of their insureds.

Countymutual insurancecompaniescannot write accidentaldeathpolicieson the lives of their insureds. APPROVED: Yoursvery truly, J. Fred Jones JOHN BEN SIEPPERD StateAffairsDivision AttorneyGeneral W. V. Geppert Reviewer J. A. Amis,Jr. Reviewer L. W. 

### Gray SpecialReviewer DavisGrant First ,Assistant JohnBen Shepperd AttorneyGeneral 

# By(lPh-K@.+a Robert 0, Fagg Assistant