Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-10-23
NAY I0EVAD[ The Law
Fire Insurance Companies Have
Prepared a Policy Disre-
garding the Statutes
BELIEVE LAW WILL NOT HOLD
Iowa Statute Provides That Companies
Must Prorate Losses With All In
surance Good or Bad POLICY So
Designed a. to Evade Intent of
Statute.

Statute.
/ Special to Times-Republican.
/ Des Moines, Oct. 23.-The long pend
/ ing controversy in Iowa over the insur-
I ance policies which are issued by fire
companies has come to head, and be-
tween this date and the first of next
/ year the companies that are authorized
to do business in Iowa and are doing it
will have to choose whether they will
| longer refuse to conform to the Iowa
law or make compliance so that they
and continue. The fight has been on
between the state auditor and the COM
| panies for about two years. The COM
panies and their agents reached the
conclusion that there should be an Iowa
uniform policy Of fire insurance and
employed an insurance lawyer to pre-
pare policy which would meet their
needs and at the same time be practi-
cally in accordance with the Iowa laws.
This policy was prepared, it is under
stood, by A. II. McVey, Of this city,
who has since been appointed to the
district bench by Governor Shaw. The
policy is known as the Iowa uniform
policy, and differs in many respects
from the New York standard. In two
points in particular 1t differs from the
plain contemplation of the Iowa stat
Nd .1o,, re III
vergences given in brief prepared for
the companies by Judge McVey is in
| teresting. The policy provides that in
case of loss the Companies shall pro-
rate with all companies, solvent or in
solvent, according to their policies. The
Iowa law distinctly says they must pro-
rate only with the solvent Companies
and the valid insurance. But Judge
McVey explained that while the Iowa
I law provides that no contract shall be
made for prorating with all companies
holding the insurance, the unifc:<i
policy does so provide since in his
opinion the Iowa law is un-
constitutional With this plan de-
fla..ce of law the companies have been
writing insurance in Iowa two years.
In regard to declaring that an insurer
shall not take out policies in companies
other than those authorized, the uni
form policy is contrary to the Iowa law,
but instead of providing that the poll
cies in the uniform policy shall be void
in case other insurance is taken out, it
provides that the taking out of unau-
thorized insurance shall be deemed an
election on the part of the insured to
abandon all his good insurance. In this
ingenious manner Judge McVey pro-
vided that the law should be evaded.
Today State Auditor Merriam COM
menced sending out to the insurance
companies copies Of the new uniform
policy which was drawn by the attor-
ney general. Mr.. Merriam and Mr..
Mullan had been at work on. this long
time. The policy conforms exactly to
the Iowa laws. While an effort was
made to get special legislation .on that
subject last winter which was defeated
by the insurance lobby, yet the attor-
ney general holds that the state auditor
has the right to insist upon a policy
that conforms to the Iowa laws. AL
ready some of the companies have sig
nified their intention of accepting the
new policy. An insurance company at
Peoria has written saying 1T would not
begin business in Iowa until the new
policy is received. If the leading ones
accept the policy 1t will be the one in
general use in the state. Nothing can
be done now to compel the companies
to take up this new policy. but when
the new state auditor comes into Office
Jan next he may refuse to issue cer-
tificates to the companies until they
have complied. In this way they can
be forced to accept unless the courts
interfere. 1t is believed that Senator
Carroll will pursue substantially the
same policy as State Auditor Merriam
and force the companies to revise their
policies in accordance With Iowa laws.
But if number of the companies OBJ
ject to the change and resist it in the
courts they may delay action for sew
eral years. They WILL however, run the
risk of legislative interference in a
manner that would be dangerous to
them. They are already at considerable
expense in employing lobbyists and
plotters, and they will hardly dare go
before another legislature with an at
tempt to throttle all legislation.
There will have to be a great amount
of new registration in the cities of the
state this year if the vote is to come
up to what it should. The fact is
pointed out that with the lively cam
paign of last year the vote fell off in
Iowa about 100000 from the vote of the
presidential year. The year after the
presidential campaign of 1896 the vote
fell off about 100000 Evidently great
many thousand Iowa voters failed to