PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Enemy or ally insurance or reinsurance companies, and other enemies or allies doing business in the United States, had 30 days after October 6, 1917 to ask the President for a license to keep operating here. The President then had 30 days after the request to grant or refuse the license. If the President let them operate, the license could be temporary and could include rules about how they must run their business, handle agents, and control their money. The President could later revoke, renew, or change the license. U.S. insurance companies did not have to keep old contracts made before the war; they could cancel those contracts by giving 30 days’ written notice to the President. For the 30 days after October 6, 1917, and while the President decided, earlier presidential rules about foreign insurance agencies stayed in effect. If a licensed enemy or ally insurer was allowed to operate, it could not send its funds out of the United States or use those funds to create credit that would help an enemy or ally. For 30 days after October 6, 1917, other enemy or ally persons could still do business here while the President considered their requests, but wartime rules about sending money or property out of the country or using it to create credit still applied. If no license was requested within 30 days, or if a license was refused or later revoked, stricter wartime controls then applied to any trade with that person or company. Even after refusal or revocation, policyholders and U.S. insurers could still get payments, claims, premiums, or returns due under existing policies, and could apply to recover money held by the government or sue under the government’s procedures. During the war, enemies or allied persons and partnerships could not use a new name without the President’s permission, and the President could bar or allow any foreign insurance company to do business in the United States on terms he set.

Title 50, §4304

War and National Defense, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Every enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company, and every enemy or ally of enemy, doing business within the United States through an agency or branch office, or otherwise, may within thirty days after October 6, 1917, apply to the President for a license to continue to do business; and, within thirty days after such application, the President may enter an order either granting or refusing to grant such license. The license, if granted, may be temporary or otherwise, and for such period of time, and may contain such provisions and conditions regulating the business, agencies, managers and trustees and the control and disposition of the funds of the company, or of such enemy or ally of enemy, as the President shall deem necessary for the safety of the United States; and any license granted hereunder may be revoked or regranted or renewed in such manner and at such times as the President shall determine: Provided, however, That reasonable notice of his intent to refuse to grant a license or to revoke a license granted to any reinsurance company shall be given by him to all insurance companies incorporated within the United States and known to the President to be doing business with such reinsurance company: Provided further, That no insurance company, organized within the United States, shall be obligated to continue any existing contract, entered into prior to the beginning of the war, with any enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company, but any such company may abrogate and cancel any such contract by serving thirty days’ notice in writing upon the President of its election to abrogate such contract. For a period of thirty days after October 6, 1917, and further pending the entry of such order by the President, after application made by any enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company, within such thirty days as above provided, the provisions of the President’s proclamation of April sixth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, relative to agencies in the United States of certain insurance companies, as modified by the provisions of the President’s proclamation of July thirteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, relative to marine and war-risk insurance, shall remain in full force and effect so far as it applies to such German insurance companies, and the conditions of said proclamation of April sixth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, as modified by said proclamation of July thirteenth, nineteen hundred and seventeen, shall also during said period of thirty days after October 6, 1917, and pending the order of the President as herein provided, apply to any enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company, anything in this chapter to the contrary notwithstanding. It shall be unlawful for any enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company, to whom license is granted, to transmit out of the United States any funds belonging to or held for the benefit of such company or to use any such funds as the basis for the establishment directly or indirectly of any credit within or outside of the United States to, or for the benefit of, or on behalf of, or on account of, an enemy or ally of enemy. For a period of thirty days after October 6, 1917, and further pending the entry of such order by the President, after application made within such thirty days by any enemy or ally of enemy, other than an insurance or reinsurance company as above provided, it shall be lawful for such enemy or ally of enemy to continue to do business in this country and for any person to trade with, to, from, for, on account of, on behalf of or for the benefit of such enemy or ally of enemy, anything in this chapter to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, however, That the provisions of section 4303 and 4315 of this title shall apply to any act or attempted act of transmission or transfer of money or other property out of the United States and to the use or attempted use of such money or property as the basis for the establishment of any credit within or outside of the United States to, or for the benefit of, or on behalf of, or on account of, an enemy or ally of enemy. If no license is applied for within thirty days after October 6, 1917, or if a license shall be refused to any enemy or ally of enemy, whether insurance or reinsurance company, or other person, making application, or if any license granted shall be revoked by the President, the provisions of section 4303 and 4315 of this title shall forthwith apply to all trade or to any attempt to trade with, to, from, for, buy, on account of, or on behalf of, or for the benefit of such company or other person: Provided, however, That after such refusal or revocation, anything in this chapter to the contrary notwithstanding, it shall be lawful for a policyholder or for an insurance company, not an enemy or ally of enemy, holding insurance or having effected reinsurance in or with such enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company, to receive payment of, and for such enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company to pay any premium, return premium, claim, money, security, or other property due or which may become due on or in respect to such insurance or reinsurance in force at the date of such refusal or revocation of license; and nothing in this chapter shall vitiate or nullify then existing policies or contracts of insurance or reinsurance, or the conditions thereof; and any such policyholder or insurance company, not an enemy or ally of enemy, having any claim to or upon money or other property of the enemy or ally of enemy insurance or reinsurance company in the custody or control of the alien property custodian, hereinafter provided for, or of the Treasurer of the United States, may make application for the payment thereof and may institute suit as provided in section 4309 of this title.

(b)During the present war, no enemy, or ally of enemy, and no partnership of which he is a member or was a member at the beginning of the war, shall for any purpose assume or use any name other than that by which such enemy or partnership was ordinarily known at the beginning of the war, except under license from the President. Whenever, during the present war, in the opinion of the President the public safety or public interest requires, the President may prohibit any or all foreign insurance companies from doing business in the United States, or the President may license such company or companies to do business upon such terms as he may deem proper.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

For proclamation of

April 6, 1917, 40 Stat. 1654, and proclamation of

July 13, 1917, 40 Stat. 1684, referred to in subsec. (a), see World War I Presidential Proclamations notes below. This chapter, referred to in subsec. (a), was in the original “this Act”, meaning act Oct. 6, 1917, ch. 106, 40 Stat. 411, known as the Trading with the enemy Act, also known as the Trading with the Enemy Act, which is classified principally to this chapter. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see section 4301 of this title and Tables. Codification Section was formerly classified to section 4 of the former Appendix to this title prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

Executive Documents

Transfer of Functions

Functions vested by law in Alien Property Custodian and Office of Alien Property Custodian transferred to Attorney General by Reorg. Plan No. 1 of 1947, § 101, eff. July 1, 1947, 12 F.R. 4534, 61 Stat. 951, set out in the Appendix to Title 5, Government Organization and Employees. World War I Presidential Proclamations Proc. Apr. 16, 1917, 40 Stat. 1654, declared and proclaimed that branch establishments of German insurance companies doing business in the United States would be authorized to continue to do so, subject to the

Rules and Regulations

of the State in which such establishment’s principal office is located, but prohibited transmission of any funds outside of the United States or the use of any funds for the establishment of any credit within or outside of the United States to or for the benefit or use of the enemy or any of its allies without the permission of the Federal Government. Proc. July 13, 1917, 40 Stat. 1684, declared and proclaimed that branch establishments of German insurance companies doing business in the United States would be prohibited from transacting the business of marine and war risk insurance either as direct insurers or re-insurers and directed that such prohibition would extend and operate to suspend all existing contracts for the period of the war.

§4304 Licenses to Enemy or Ally of Enemy Insurance or Reinsurance Companies; Change of Name; Doing Business in United States