PRINTER'S NO. 620
No. 526 Session of 2003
INTRODUCED BY BISHOP, WATERS, JOSEPHS, THOMAS, LEDERER, WALKO,
MANDERINO, J. WILLIAMS, J. EVANS, JAMES, CURRY, WASHINGTON,
HORSEY, YOUNGBLOOD, LEACH, CRUZ, GRUCELA, MELIO, PRESTON,
DALEY, KIRKLAND AND MYERS, FEBRUARY 26, 2003
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON INSURANCE, FEBRUARY 26, 2003
AN ACT
1 Amending Title 40 (Insurance) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
2 Statutes, providing for reports by insurers of slavery era
3 policies.
4 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
5 hereby enacts as follows:
6 Section 1. Title 40 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated
7 Statutes is amended by adding an article to read:
8 ARTICLE C
9 OTHER INSURERS
10 Chapter
11 81. Slavery Era Insurers
12 CHAPTER 81
13 SLAVERY ERA INSURERS
14 Sec.
15 8101. Definitions.
16 8102. Submission of report.
17 8103. Report format.
1 8104. Establishment of Slavery Era Insurance Policy Registry.
2 8105. Department.
3 § 8101. Definitions.
4 The following words and phrases when used in this chapter
5 shall have the meanings given to them in this section unless the
6 context clearly indicates otherwise:
7 "Insurer." An insurer licensed and doing business in this
8 Commonwealth on or after January 1, 2003.
9 "Predecessor corporation." A corporation in the reporting
10 insurer's history that existed prior to the reporting
11 corporation.
12 "Reporting insurer." An insurer that has been designated by
13 its holding company to submit a consolidated report which is
14 responsive to this chapter.
15 "Slave." An individual:
16 (1) wholly subject to the will of another;
17 (2) having no freedom of action;
18 (3) whose person and services were wholly under the
19 control of another; and
20 (4) who was in a state of enforced compulsory service to
21 another.
22 "Slaveholder." An owner of slaves; an owner of a business
23 enterprise using slaves; an owner of a slave-carrying vessel or
24 other means of transporting slaves; a merchant or financier
25 dealing in the purchase, sale or financing of the business of
26 slaves and slavery; a slave dealer; or a slave broker.
27 "Slaveholder insurance policy." A policy issued to or for
28 the benefit of a slaveholder to insure the slaveholder against
29 the death of, or injury to, a slave.
30 "Slavery era." Anytime prior to 1865.
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1 § 8102. Submission of report.
2 (a) General rule.--Every insurer shall, within six months
3 after the effective date of this chapter, report to the
4 department regarding slaveholder insurance policies which it
5 wrote either directly or through a predecessor corporation
6 during the slavery era.
7 (b) Consolidated report.--A consolidated report may be
8 submitted by the reporting insurer's holding company on behalf
9 of all members of the holding company required to file a report.
10 A consolidated report must designate one insurer as the
11 reporting insurer for purposes of compliance with this chapter
12 and must specify which insurers are included in the report.
13 Insurers choosing to file a consolidated report shall comply
14 with all other requirements of this chapter.
15 § 8103. Report format.
16 The report must be submitted on the letterhead of the
17 reporting insurer, be dated and signed by an officer of the
18 insurer who has the authority to bind the insurer and provide as
19 follows:
20 (1) The name, address, telephone number, facsimile
21 number, e-mail address, National Association of Insurance
22 Commissioner (NAIC) number and World Wide Web site Uniform
23 Resource Locator (URL) address for the main office of the
24 insurer making the report.
25 (2) The name, address, telephone number, facsimile
26 number and e-mail address for the insurer's contact person.
27 (3) A description of the methods employed by the insurer
28 to identify and compile the information which is responsive
29 to this chapter. This paragraph includes a description of the
30 research which was conducted at the insurer's own facility
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1 and a description of research which was conducted at other
2 facilities known to the insurer. If the insurer has found no
3 data responsive to this chapter, it shall so state.
4 (4) Information regarding the names of slaves
5 alphabetically as follows: last name, first name, name of
6 slaveholder, beneficiary and policyholder, amount of policy,
7 county, state and any other identifying information.
8 § 8104. Establishment of Slavery Era Insurance Policy Registry.
9 The department shall establish and report to the General
10 Assembly and make available to the public all information
11 received from insurers under this chapter. The lists of names of
12 slaves and names of slaveholders and other slavery era insurance
13 policy information shall be known as the Slavery Era Insurance
14 Policy Registry and shall be made accessible to the public by
15 the department.
16 § 8105. Department.
17 The department is authorized to conduct its own research to
18 verify the accuracy of the report in section 8103(3) (relating
19 to report format).
20 Section 2. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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