annual state SECTION 16. He shall annually, in December, furnish to each Blanks for of the insurance companies authorized to do business in this commonwealth two or more blanks in form adapted for their annual 1883, 33, § 3. 1887, 214, § 16. 1888, 199, § 3. 1894, 522, § 16. 1897, 65. R. L. 118, § 16. statements. P. S. 119, § 19. R. L. 118, § 17. ments. Record of be furnished P. S. 119, § 20. 1887, 214, § 17. 1894, 522, § 17. He shall furnish, when required for evidence in court, certificates Certificates to under seal of the department relative to the authority of a com- court. pany, agent or broker to transact business in this commonwealth upon any particular date, and such certificates shall be received by the courts in lieu of the testimony of the insurance commissioner or his representative. his Annual 1855, 124, 9. 56. He shall annually, and as early as is consistent with full and accurate preparation, make a report to the general court of official transactions, and shall include in such report a statement of the receipts and expenditures of his department for the preceding year; a report of the condition of the receiverships of insolvent 1856, 252, §§ 8, companies; an exhibit of the financial condition and business 1857, 40, § 8. transactions of the several insurance companies as disclosed by 1858, 177, § 2. official examinations of the same or by their annual statements, abstracts of which statements, with his valuation of life policies, shall appear therein; and such other information and comments relative to insurance and the public interest therein, as he thinks proper. The annual report of the insurance commissioner on matters relating to fire insurance shall contain the laws enacted on that subject in the year of the report, and his annual report on life and miscellaneous insurance matters shall contain the laws enacted on those subjects in the year of the report. By Statutes of 1904, chapter 247, the commissioner is given authority to destroy old papers and records of companies that have discontinued business; the Governor and Council, however, are first to endorse their approval. G. S. 58, § 10. 1867, 267, § 9. 15.03.119, 21. R. L. 118, § 17. PROVISIONS COMMON TO ALL COMPANIES. porate name SECTION 18. Every insurance company, foreign or domestic, To act in corshall conduct its business in this commonwealth in the name by only. which it is incorporated, and the policies and contracts of insurance issued by it shall be headed or entitled only by such name. 1853, 333, § 1. 1854, 453, 8. 1856, 252, § 5. G. S. 58,18 24. P. S. 119, § 178. 1887, 214, § 18. 1894, 522, § 18. 1 As amended by chapter 51, Acts of 1911. R. L. 118, § 18. Liabilities to be published with assets, etc. 1878, 87, § 1. R. L. 118, § 18. When any such company publishes its assets it shall in the same connection and with equal conspicuousness publish its liabilities computed on the basis allowed for its annual statements, and any publication purporting to show its capital shall exhibit only the amount of such capital as has been actually paid in cash. Such publications shall be held to include all policies, renewals, signs, circulars, cards or other means by which public announcements are made. Acts of 1913, Chapter 474. SECTION 1. No insurance company, association or society, doing business in this commonwealth and no officer, director, agent, broker or solicitor thereof, shall issue, circulate, or use or cause or permit to be used, circulated or issued, any written or oral statement or circular misrepresenting the terms of any policy issued or to be issued by any company, or misrepresenting the benefits or privileges promised under any such policy. No such insurance company, association or society, officer, director, agent, solicitor or broker, shall make any misrepresentation, oral, written or otherwise, to any person insured in any company, for the purpose of inducing or tending to induce a policy holder in any company to lapse, forfeit or surrender his insurance therein. SECTION 2. Any insurance company, association or society, agent, solicitor or broker, or any person, firm, association or corporation, violating any provision of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for each offence. SECTION 3. The insurance commissioner may, in his discretion, revoke or suspend for a period not exceeding one year a license theretofore issued to any company, association or society, agent or broker, if he is convinced, after a hearing, that such company, association or society, agent or broker, has knowingly or wilfully violated any provision of this act. Acts of 1911, Chapter 428. SECTION 1. Any person who wilfully and with intent to defraud makes or publishes, or causes to be made or published in any way whatever, or permits to be so made or published, any book, prospectus, notice, report, statement, exhibit, advertisement or other publication of or concerning the affairs, financial condition, property or assets of any corporation, joint-stock association, partnership or individual, which said book; prospectus, notice, report, statement, exhibit, advertisement or other publication contains any statement which is false or wilfully exaggerated and which shall have a tendency to give a less or greater apparent value to the shares, bonds, property or assets of such corporation, joint-stock association, partnership or individual, or any part of said shares, bonds, property or assets, than said shares, bonds, property or assets or any part thereof shall really and in fact possess, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than ten years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. SECTION 2. Chapter three hundred and eighty-three of the acts of the year nineteen hundred and seven is hereby repealed. Returns for taxes. SECTION 19. Every such company shall be liable to taxation by Taxation. any general law taxing insurance companies, and it shall by its assessment of proper officers make to the tax commissioner or other officer of the 1832, 95, § 7. 1835, 147, § 13. commonwealth such returns and statements of its business and R. S. 37, §§ 22, affairs as the law may require for the purpose of assessment of such 18 taxes, and thereupon its officers and agents may be examined under oath by the officer to whom such returns are to be made. 1887, 214, § 19. 1894, 522, § 19. R. L. 118, § 19. P. S. 119, § 45. 1868, chapter 349, section 4, providing that no stock insurance corporation shall be taxed for its investments in the shares of national banks in this State, and 1865, chapter 242, requiring the assessors to make a list of owners of national bank stock, do not apply to mutual life insurance companies. (Murray v. Ins. Co., 104 Mass. 586, 1870.) 1880, chapter 227 (Revised Laws, chapter 14, sections 24 et seq.), imposing on every life insurance corporation an annual excise tax, "to be determined by assessment of the same upon a valuation equal to the aggregate net value of all policies in force on the thirty-first day of December then next preceding, issued or assumed by such corporation or association, and held by residents of the Commonwealth, at the rate of one-half of one per centum per annum," is constitutional. (Conn. Ins. Co. v. Com., 133 Mass. 160, 1882.) 1851, 281, § 21. 1854, 453, 13. 1856, 252, § 7. G. S. 58, § 19. 1871, 297, § 7. 1872, 325, § 5. 1874, 109. 1883, 33, § 1. SECTION 20.1 If a company authorized to transact the business Sworn report of reinsurance, of insurance in this commonwealth directly or indirectly contracts etc. for or effects any reinsurance of any risk or part thereof taken by it, 1119, it shall make a sworn report thereof to the insurance commissioner $152. at the time of filing its annual statement or at such other time as he 1884, 120. 1887, 214, § 20. may request; and such reinsurance unless effected in companies 1891, 368. 1892, 47. authorized to transact in this commonwealth the class of business 1894, 137, § 1; reinsured shall not reduce the taxes to be paid by it nor the reserve 1895, 59, § 1. 522, § 20. to be charged to it. Such reinsurance shall reduce the gross preR. L. 118, § 20. miums on risks in force upon which a reserve is to be carried by the ceding company only by the actual amount paid or payable by it for the reinsurance, plus the commission, if any, allowed by 1 As amended by chapter 345, Acts of 1909, and chapter 448, Acts of 1914. Limit of single risk. 1817, 120, § 7. 1819, 141. R. S. 37, § 21. 1854, 453, § 7. 1856, 252, 15. G. S. 58, § 32. P. S. 119, § 56. the reinsuring company on account of such reinsurance, except that the gross premiums of the ceding company on risks in force may be reduced by the amount of the gross premium of the ceding company on the risks, or portion thereof, reinsured, upon presentation of evidence satisfactory to the insurance commissioner that the reinsuring company has included in its liabilities the full reserve on the risks, or portion thereof, reinsured, which the ceding company would by law have been required to carry, had it retained the risks, or portion thereof, reinsured, and that the ceding company has included in its liabilities the actual unearned portion, on a monthly pro rata basis, of the gross premiums on the risks, or portion thereof, not reinsured. In case the reinsurance is effected by a company as a preliminary step to its permanent retirement from business, its gross premiums on risks in force may be reduced by the amount of the original gross premium of the ceding company on the risks reinsured. No insurance company authorized to transact business in this commonwealth shall insure in a single risk, wherever such risk is located, a larger amount than one tenth of its net assets, unless it has provided for reinsurance of the excess over said limit, to take effect simultaneously with the original contract; and if any R. L. 118, § 20. foreign insurance company violates this provision, the insurance commissioner may revoke its authority to transact business in this commonwealth; but a mutual boiler insurance company of this commonwealth may insure in a single risk an amount not exceeding one fourth of its net assets. Report of reinsurance by Every fire insurance company admitted to do business in this commonwealth shall annually and at such other times as the inR. L. 118, § 20. surance commissioner may require, in addition to all returns now fire company. 1898, 537, § 1. by law required of it or its agents or managers, make a return to the insurance commissioner in such form and detail as may be prescribed by him, of all reinsurance contracted for or effected by it, directly or indirectly, upon property located in this commonwealth, such return to be certified by the oath of its president and secretary if a company of one of the United States, and, if a company of a foreign country by its president and secretary or by officers corresponding thereto as to reinsurance as aforesaid contracted for or effected through the foreign office, and by the United States manager, as to such reinsurance effected by the United States branch. If a company contracts for indemnity against loss under any contract of insurance or reinsurance assumed by it, which indemnity is contingent upon the happening of any event affecting property, life or interest in this commonwealth in a company not duly authorized to transact business herein, or if it refuses or neglects to make the returns required by this section, the insurance commissioner may revoke its authority to transact business in this commonwealth if it is a foreign company and, if a domestic company, he shall report the facts to the attorney-general as provided in section ten; but any fire insurance company authorized to do business in this commonwealth may insure and have full authority to reinsure in unauthorized companies any property located in this commonwealth in respect to which an affidavit has been filed within the twelve months last preceding in accordance with the provisions of section eighty-eight, in which case the restrictive provision of this section as to the amount which may be insured in a single risk shall not apply. Evidence that a foreign insurance company, admitted to do business in this commonwealth, has reinsured in a company not so authorized and without filing the affidavit required by section 88, justifies the commissioner in revoking the authority of the company, and it is immaterial that the contract of reinsurance was made and to be performed outside the State. (Op. A. G. 42, 1904.) by marine company. An insurance company authorized to do marine business in this Limit of risk commonwealth take may risk if it reinsures the same, if necesany sary, so that it does not retain for itself an amount of the risk exceeding ten per cent of its capital and surplus wherever they may be, and if it also places such reinsurance, if possible, at the time and at not over the original rate, with companies authorized to do marine insurance in this commonwealth; any amount in excess of what can be so placed may be reinsured with other companies, if the company or agent who procures said risk files an affidavit to that effect with the insurance commissioner, at such time and in such form as may be prescribed by him. The words "capital and surplus, wherever they may be found," include the property and assets of a foreign marine insurance company both in the United States and in foreign countries. (1 Op. A. G. 573, 1898.) On Reinsurance in General. A contract of reinsurance was declared a valid contract, apparently for the first time in this State, in Merry v. Prince, 2 Mass. 176, 1806. The reinsurance contract is of a different nature from the insurance contract. It is a contract of indemnity against risk under another contract. Hence changes in the property originally insured, such as foreclosure or change in title or possession, which might have voided the original policy if not assented to, may not affect the reinsurance policy, as it does not increase the insurer's risk. (Manufacturers Ins. Co. v. Western Assurance Co., 145 Mass. 419, 1888; see also Faneuil Hall Ins. Co. v. Liverpool, etc., Co., 153 Mass. 63, 1891.) For the same reason, action on the reinsurance policy is not barred merely by the fact that the limitation period fixed in the original policy has run. (Faneuil Hall Ins. Co. v. Liverpool, etc., Co., 153 Mass. 63, 1891.) The reinsurance for a certain time and to a certain amount by one company of all such marine risks as another company has when the contract of reinsurance is entered into, or may take during the time that it is to run, is not void as a wager policy, but is a valid contract. (Boston Ins. Co. v. Globe Ins. Co., 174 Mass. 229, 1899.) A contract of reinsurance is not a contract of insurance "on property' within the meaning of Revised Laws, chapter 118, section 60, and such |