GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2001
S	1
SENATE BILL 460*
     

 
Short Title:	 Umbrella Insurance Improvements-AB.	()	
Sponsors:	Senator Wellons.	
Referred to:	Insurance and Consumer Protection.	
March 15, 2001

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to increase the amounts of liability insurance that may be ceded to the north carolina motor vehicle reinsurance facility to facilitate the purchase of excess or umbrella coverage by motor vehicle owners and to clarify other laws relating to umbrella insurance.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 58‑37‑35(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	The Facility shall reinsure for each coverage available  in the Facility to the standard percentage of one hundred percent (100%) or lesser equitable percentage established in the Facility's plan of operation as follows:
(1)	For the following coverages of motor vehicle insurance and in at least the following amounts of insurance:
a.	Bodily injury liability: thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) each person, sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) each accident;
b.	Property damage liability: twenty‑five thousand dollars ($25,000) each person;
c.	Medical payments: one thousand dollars ($1,000) each person; except that this coverage shall not be available for motorcycles;
d.	Uninsured motorist: thirty thousand dollars ($30,000) each person; sixty thousand dollars ($60,000) each accident for bodily injury; twenty‑five thousand dollars ($25,000) each accident property damage (one hundred dollars ($100.00) deductible);
e.	Any other motor vehicle insurance or financial responsibility limits in the amounts required by any federal law or federal agency regulation; by any law of this State; or by any rule duly adopted under Chapter 150B of the General Statutes or by the North Carolina Utilities Commission.
(2)	Additional ceding privileges for motor vehicle insurance shall be provided by the Board of Governors up to the following:
a.	Bodily injury liability: two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) each person, five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) each accident;
b.	Property damage liability: one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) each accident;
c.	Medical payments: five thousand dollars ($5,000) each person;
d.	Underinsured motorist: one million dollars ($1,000,000) each person and each accident for bodily injury liability; and
e.	Uninsured motorist: one million dollars ($1,000,000) each person and each accident for bodily injury and fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) for property damage (one hundred dollars ($100.00) deductible).
(3)	Whenever the additional ceding privileges are provided as in G.S. 58‑37‑35(b)(2) for any component of motor vehicle insurance, the same additional ceding privileges shall be available to "all other" types of risks subject to the rating jurisdiction of the North Carolina Rate Bureau."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 58‑36‑1(3) reads as rewritten:
"(3)	The Bureau shall promulgate and propose rates for insurance against loss to residential real property with not more than four housing units located in this State and any contents thereof or valuable interest therein and other insurance coverages written in connection with the sale of such property insurance; for insurance against theft of or physical damage to nonfleet private passenger motor vehicles; for liability insurance for such motor vehicles, automobile medical payments insurance, uninsured and underinsured motorists coverage and other insurance coverages written in connection with the sale of such liability insurance; and, as provided in G.S. 58‑36‑100, for loss costs and residual market rate filings for workers' compensation and employers' liability insurance written in connection therewith. This subdivision does not apply to motor vehicles operated under certificates of authority from the Utilities Commission, the Interstate Commerce Commission, or their successor agencies, where insurance or other proof of financial responsibility is required by law or by regulations specifically applicable to such certificated vehicles. The Bureau shall have no jurisdiction over excess workers' compensation insurance for employers qualifying as self‑insurers as provided in Article 47 of this Chapter or Article 5 of Chapter 97 of the General Statutes; nor shall the Bureau's jurisdiction include farm buildings, farm dwellings and their appurtenant structures, farm personal property or other coverages written in connection with farm real or personal property; travel or camper trailers designed to be pulled by private passenger motor vehicles, unless insured under policies covering nonfleet private passenger motor vehicles; personal excess liability or personal "umbrella" insurance; mechanical breakdown insurance covering nonfleet private passenger motor vehicles and other incidental coverages written in connection with this insurance, including emergency road service assistance, trip interruption reimbursement, rental car reimbursement, and tire coverage; residential real and personal property insured in multiple line insurance policies covering business activities as the primary insurable interest; and marine, general liability, burglary and theft, glass, and animal collision insurance, except when such coverages are written as an integral part of a multiple line insurance policy for which there is an indivisible premium."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 58‑7‑15(13) reads as rewritten:
"(13)	"Personal injury liability insurance," meaning insurance against legal liability of the insured, and against loss, damage, or expense incident to a claim of such liability; including personal excess liability or personal "umbrella" insurance; and including an obligation of the insurer to pay medical, hospital, surgical, or funeral benefits; and in the case of  motor vehicle liability insurance including also disability and death benefits to injured persons, irrespective of legal liability of the insured, arising out of the death or injury of any person, or arising out of injury to the economic interests of any person as a result of negligence in rendering expert, fiduciary, or professional service; but not including any kind of insurance specified in subdivision (15) of this section."
SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2001.