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 may be 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 may write insurance against said 

hazards: 

“(a) On both 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) On barns 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 may write 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 may write 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 may write all lines of automobile 

insurance a -tatlou. . . .‘I* 

* Emphasis added. 
Hon. J. Byron Saunders, page 3 (s-191) 

Because of the specific limitations of Articles 

17.01 and 1725, it is clear that the Legislature did not 

intend to authorize such policies, and it is the opinion 

of this office that county mutual insurance companies cannot write accidental death policies on the lives of their 

insureds. 

County mutual insurance companies cannot 

write accidental death policies on the lives of 

their insureds. 

APPROVED: Yours very truly, 

J. Fred Jones JOHN BEN SIEPPERD 

State Affairs Division Attorney General 

W. V. Geppert 

Reviewer 

J. A. Amis, Jr. 

Reviewer 

L. W. Gray 

Special Reviewer 

Davis Grant 

First ,Assistant 

John Ben Shepperd 

Attorney General 

By(lPh-K@.+a 

Robert 0, Fagg 

Assistant