2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part I - Administration of the Government › Title XXII - Corporations › Chapter 175 - Insurance › Section 86 - Mutual Marine Companies; Subscribers; Losses; Dividends; Redemption Fund

Section 86. A mutual marine company formed under the second clause of section forty-seven shall have an agreement under the seal of each subscriber thereto, substantially as follows:
The subscribers severally agree to pay to the Insurance Company on demand the whole or such part of the amounts set against our names as may be called from time to time for the use of said company in the payment of its losses and expenses not otherwise provided for.
Such company shall not issue policies until not less than the combined capital and surplus provisions required under section forty-eight, which shall be the total of such subscriptions, shall have been so subscribed, and a certificate, signed by the president and a majority of the directors, certifying that the subscribers are known to them and that they believe them to be solvent and able to pay their subscriptions, has been deposited with and approved by the commissioner. If a subscriber dies or becomes insolvent, his subscription shall be cancelled; and if the amount of the subscription fund is thereby or otherwise reduced, the deficiency shall be made good by new subscriptions certified in the same manner as the original. Subscribers shall be entitled to annual dividends of two per cent upon the amount of their subscriptions from the profits of the company, and shall also be reimbursed from future profits for all amounts of money they may pay the company for its uses under their agreement, with lawful interest thereon.
The net profits or divisible surplus of such companies shall annually be divided among the insured whose policies terminated within the year, in proportion to the contribution of each to such profits or surplus, and such dividends shall be made only in scrip certificates payable only out of the accumulation of net profits or surplus, which accumulation shall constitute and be kept and invested by the company as a separate fund in trust for the redemption of such scrip certificates and the contingent payment of losses and expenses as herein provided. Such certificates until redeemed shall be subject to future losses and expenses of the company and to be reduced if the redemption fund is drawn upon for the payment of such losses and expenses. But no part of the redemption fund shall be used for the payment of losses or expenses unless the cash assets of the company are insufficient therefor, and except to the extent of the deficiency; and if any portion thereof shall be used for such payment, the outstanding certificates shall be reduced in proportion, so that the redemption fund shall at all times equal the amount of the unredeemed certificates. The net income of the redemption fund shall be divided annually among the holders of its certificates, or the company may make such certificates with a specific rate of interest payable from the income of its invested funds. As such profits accumulate and are invested, subscriptions of an equal amount shall be cancelled. The maximum of such accumulation of profits shall be three hundred thousand dollars, and all excess of profits above said amount shall be applied annually to the payment of the certificates in the order of their issue. The certificates shall forthwith be payable when the company shall cease to issue policies and the fund is no longer liable to be drawn upon for the payment of losses.