Opinion ID: 2018775
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Furniture and Fixtures

Text: The commissioner nonadmitted the entire value of $104,657 listed by Sierra on its 1975 annual statement for furniture and fixtures. The commissioner concluded that furniture and fixtures are rapidly depreciating assets and, consequently, that such assets could not be considered secure or well invested. Lloyd B. Schoeder, the Chief Examiner for the North Dakota Insurance Department, testified that historically the North Dakota Insurance Department has never allowed furniture and fixtures as admitted assets. The commissioner did not, however, have any statute or regulation upon which to base his determination. Nor did the commissioner make a finding that the $104,657 value Sierra placed on its furniture and fixtures was inflated or inaccurate. His sole basis for nonadmission of these assets was that they depreciate rapidly and that historically furniture and fixtures have been nonadmitted in North Dakota. The commissioner has failed to advance any authority which would support his conclusion that these are impermissible assets which should not be included in determining the financial soundness of Sierra. Although this Court is reluctant to substitute its own judgment for that of administrative agencies to whom such matters are entrusted we cannot allow the commissioner to totally nonadmit assets on the sole basis that such assets have been nonadmitted in the past and that such assets are rapidly depreciating. We conclude that the commissioner erred when he nonadmitted these assets, and we shall consider them, at a value of $104,657, in our determination of whether or not the commissioner was authorized to suspend Sierra's Certificate of Authority.