Title 26.1, Insurance

Whenever the commissioner believes that this chapter has been violated, the commissioner, at the expense of the insurer involved, may examine, at the offices of the insurer or insurance producer, whether located within or without this state, all books, records, and papers of the …

The commissioner may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation and administration of this chapter.

In addition to or in lieu of any applicable denial, suspension, or revocation of a license, any person violating this chapter may, after hearing, be subject to a civil fine not to exceed ten thousand dollars for each violation. The fine may be collected and recovered in an action…

A civil action for the recovery of damages resulting from negligence or breach of contract brought against any person licensed under this chapter by any person claiming to have been injured as a result of the providing of insurance services or the failure to provide insurance ser…

A license as an insurance producer is not required for the counter sales personnel of an automobile rental company or its franchisee if: 1. The automobile rental company is appropriately licensed in this state under subsection 4 of section 26.1-26-13.3 or is affiliated with an ap…

1. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires, "controlled business" means insurance written on the interests of the licensee, licensee's immediate family, or licensee's employer; or insurance covering the licensee, the members of the licensee's immediate fami…

1. Travel insurance, as that term is defined in this section, is a limited line of insurance. 2. As used in this section: a. "Limited lines travel insurance producer" means a: (1) Licensed third-party administrator; (2) Licensed insurance producer, including a limited lines produ…

The commissioner may adopt rules for the implementation and administration of this chapter.

The home address of any licensed insurance producer or insurance consultant received by the commissioner is an exempt record as defined in section 44-04-17.1.

In this chapter, "administrator" means any person who collects charges or premiums from, or who adjusts or settles claims on, residents of this state in connection with life or health insurance coverage or annuities other than: 1. An employer on behalf of its employees or the emp…

In this chapter, "insurer" means any person, including a self-insurer, engaged as a principal in the business of annuities or life or health insurance.

1. A person, including a person who directly or indirectly underwrites, collects charges or premiums from, or adjusts or settles claims on residents of this state in connection with life, annuity, or health coverage provided by a self-funded plan, may not act as or hold oneself o…

An administrator that administers or will administer self-insured plans in this state shall maintain a surety bond or proof of insurance satisfactory to the commissioner for the use and benefit of the commissioner for covered persons who have remitted premiums or insurance charge…

No person may act as an administrator without a written agreement between the administrator and the insurer. The administrator and the insurer shall retain the written agreement as part of their official records for the duration of the agreement and five years thereafter. When a …

The agreement between the administrator and the insurer must contain: 1. A provision with respect to underwriting or other standards pertaining to the business underwritten by the insurer. 2. A provision that the administrator may use only such advertising pertaining to the busin…

When the services of an administrator are used, the administrator shall provide a written notice approved by the insurer, to insureds, advising them of the identity of and relationship among the administrator, the policyholder, and the insurer. When an administrator collects fund…

All insurance charges or premiums collected by an administrator on behalf of or for an insurer or insurers, and return premiums received from such insurer or insurers, must be held by the administrator in a fiduciary capacity. The funds must be immediately remitted to the person …

Whenever an insurer uses the services of an administrator, the payment to the administrator of any premiums or charges for insurance by or on behalf of the insured is deemed to have been received by the insurer, and the payment of return premiums or claims by the insurer to the a…

All claims paid by the administrator from funds collected on behalf of the insurer may be paid only on drafts of and as authorized by the insurer.

With respect to any policies when an administrator adjusts or settles claims, the compensation to the administrator with regard to the policies may not be contingent on claim experience. This section does not prevent the compensation of an administrator from being based on premiu…

Every administrator shall maintain at its principal administrative office for the duration of the written agreement and five years thereafter adequate books and records of all transactions between it, insurers, and insureds. The books and records must be maintained in accordance …

No insurance may be offered for sale, issued, or sold by or from any vending machine or appliance or any other medium, device, or object designed or used for vending purposes, in this chapter referred to as a vending machine, except as provided in this chapter.

Insurance producers licensed by the commissioner under this title to solicit applications for and to sell policies of personal travel accident insurance providing benefits for accidental bodily injury or accidental death may also solicit applications for and issue or sell such in…

The insurance producer shall apply for a license for each vending machine to be used. The commissioner shall prescribe the form of the application. A fee of two dollars for each vending machine must be paid at the time of making the application. Upon approval of the application, …

The license for each vending machine is subject to expiration, suspension, or revocation coincidentally with that of the insurance producer or the insurer. The commissioner also may suspend, revoke, or refuse to renew the license as to any vending machine concerning which the com…

Any person who violates this chapter is guilty of a class B misdemeanor.

An insurance contract is a contract whereby one undertakes to indemnify another against loss, damage, or liability arising from an unknown or contingent event.

An insurer is a person who undertakes to indemnify another by an insurance contract and the insured is the person indemnified.

Anyone who is capable of making a contract, except as restricted by law, may be an insurer, and anyone except a public enemy may be an insured.

An insurable interest is an interest in property, or any relation thereto, or liability in respect thereof, of such a nature that a contemplated peril might damnify directly the insured, and may consist in: 1. An existing interest; 2. An inchoate interest founded on an existing i…

The sole object of insurance is the indemnity of the insured, and if the insured has no insurable interest, the contract is void.

An insurable interest must exist when the insurance takes effect and when the loss occurs but need not exist in the meantime.

The measure of an insurable interest in property is the extent to which the insured might be damnified by loss or injury of the property.

A carrier or depositary of any kind has an insurable interest in a thing held by the carrier or depositary as such to the extent of its value.

1. An individual of competent legal capacity may procure or effect an insurance contract upon that individual's own life or body for the benefit of any person. A person may not procure or cause to be procured an insurance contract upon the life or body of another individual unles…

A mere contingent or expectant interest in anything, not founded on an actual right to the thing nor upon any valid contract for it, is not insurable.

Any contingent or unknown event, whether past or future, which may damnify a person having an insurable interest or create a liability against the person may be insured against, subject to this title, with the exception of an insurance for or against the drawing of any lottery or…

A change of interest in any part of a thing insured, unaccompanied by a corresponding change of interest in the insurance, suspends the insurance to an equivalent extent until the interest in the thing insured and the interest in the insurance are vested in the same person, excep…

Each party to an insurance contract shall communicate to the other in good faith all facts within the party's knowledge which are or which the party believes to be material to the contract and which the other party has not the means of ascertaining and as to which the party makes…

"Concealment" means a neglect to communicate that which a party knows and ought to communicate.

A concealment, whether intentional or unintentional, entitles the injured party to rescind an insurance contract. An intentional and fraudulent omission on the part of one insured to communicate information of matters proving or tending to prove the falsity of a warranty entitles…

Neither party to an insurance contract is bound to communicate information of the matters following, except in answer to the inquiries of the other: 1. Those that the other knows. 2. Those that in the exercise of ordinary care the other ought to know and the former has no reason …

Materiality is to be determined not by the event, but solely by the probable and reasonable influence of the facts upon the party to whom the communication is due in forming the party's estimate of the disadvantages of the proposed contract or in making the party's inquiries.

Each party to an insurance contract is bound to know all the general causes which are open to the party's inquiry equally with that of the other and which may affect either the political or material perils contemplated and all general usages of trade.

The right to information of material facts may be waived, either by the terms of insurance or by neglect to make inquiries as to such facts, when they distinctly are implied in other facts of which information is communicated.

Information of the nature or amount of the interest of one insured need not be communicated unless in answer to inquiry, except as required to prepare the policy as prescribed by section 26.1-30-01.