PART I Company CHAP. 463. AN ACT to provide for the incorporation of life and health insurance companies, and in relation to agencies of such companies. PASSED June 24, 1853. The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows: $1. Any number of persons, not less than thirteen in nummay be cre- ber, may associate and form an incorporation or company for the purposes specified in either of the following departments: ated. Companies surance on life only, and the grenting, &c., of annuities. First department. To make insurance upon the lives of individuals and every insurance appertaining thereto or connected therewith, and to grant, purchase or dispose of annuities. Second department. To make insurance upon the health of individuals, and upon the lives of horses, cattle and other live stock. Every company organized under this act shall have authority to reinsure any risk herein authorized to be undertaken. $2. No company, partnership, or association, organized or to make in incorporated by or under the laws of this or any other state of the United States or any foreign government, transacting the business of life insurance in this state, shall be permitted or allowed to take any other kind of risks except those connected with or appertaining to making insurance on life, and the granting, purchasing and disposing of annuities; nor shall the business of life insurance in this state be in any wise conducted or transacted by any company, partnership or association, which in this, or any other state or country, Exception. makes insurance on marine or fire risks, excepting by such foreign companies and associations as shall have already made the deposit in the insurance department required for the transaction of life insurance business in this state. Corporators claration. Thus amended by Laws of 1862, ch. 300. $3. The persons referred to in the first section of this act may file de- shall be designated as corporators, and they shall file in the office of the comptroller, a declaration signed by each of the corporators, setting forth their intentions to form a company for the purposes named in this act, which declaration shall comprise a copy of the charter they propose to adopt, and the said charter shall set forth the name of the company; the place where it is to be located; the kind of business to be undertaken by referring to and repeating the department of the first section of this act to which they refer; the mode and manner in which the corporate powers of the company are to be exercised; the manner of electing the trustees or directors and officers, a majority of whom shall be citizens of this state, and the time of such election; the manner of filling vacancies; the amount of capital to be employed; and such other particulars as may be necessary to explain and make manifest the objects and purposes of the company, and the manner in which it is to be conducted. CHAP. XX. general to declaration. S 4. Whenever the corporators shall file such declaration Attorneywith the comptroller, it shall become his duty to submit the certify to same to the attorney general for examination; and, if found by him to be in accordance with the provisions of this act, and not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States and of this state, he shall certify to the same and deliver it back to the comptroller, who shall cause the said declaration, with the certificate of the attorney general, to be recorded in a book to be kept for that purpose, and, upon application of the corporators to the comptroller, it shall become his duty to furnish a certified copy of such declaration and certificate to the said corporators. To publish intention to form com pany. books for S5. Whenever the corporators shall have received from the comptroller the certified copy provided for in the last section, and desire to proceed to organize such company, they shall publish their intentions in the paper in which the state notices are directed to be inserted; and when such intentions have been published in said paper for six weeks, they may open And open books to receive subscriptions to the capital stock, and keep subscripsuch books open until the amount required by this act is subscribed, and may then proceed to distribute the stock among the subscribers, if more than the necessary amount is subscribed, and proceed to collect in the said capital and complete the organization of the company. tion. stock of 56. No company shall be organized under this act, for the Capital purposes mentioned in the first department, with a less capi- companies. tal than one hundred thousand dollars, and no company shall be organized, for the purposes mentioned in the second department, with a less capital than twenty-five thousand dollars. The whole capital of such company shall, before proceeding to business, be paid in and invested in stocks or in treasury notes of the United States or of the state of New York, or in bonds and mortgages on improved unincumbered real estate within the State of New York, worth seventy-five per cent more than the amount loaned thereon, exclusive of farm buildings thereon, or in such stocks or securities as now are or may hereafter be receivable by the banking department. And it shall be lawful for any company organized under this act, to change and re-invest its capital, or any part thereof, at any time they may desire, in the stocks or bonds and mortgages or securities aforesaid. No company organized for the purposes mentioned in the first department, shall commence business until they have deposited with the superintendent of the insurance department of this state the sum of one hundred thousand dollars in United States or New York State stocks in all cases to be or to be made to be equal Deposits to be made with super intendent. PART L Comptrol ler to fur cate of de posit. to stock producing six per cent per annum, and not to be received at a rate above their par value or above their current market value, or in bonds and mortgages of the description and character above indicated; and no company organized for the purposes named in the second department shall commence business until they have deposited with the Superintendent of the Insurance Department of this state the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, invested as herein before provided for the investment of the capital of such company. The Superintendent of the Insurance Department shall hold such securities as security for policy holders in said companies, but so long as any company so depositing shall continue solvent, may permit such company to collect the interest or dividends on its securities so deposited, and from time to time to withdraw any of such securities on depositing with the said Superintendent such other securities of like value as those withdrawn, and of the same character and to be received as those above mentioned. Thus amended by Laws of 1862, ch. 300. $7. Whenever the corporators shall have fully organized nish certif- such company, and the said company have deposited with the comptroller the requisite amount of capital, it shall become his duty to furnish the corporation with a certificate of such deposit, which, with a certified copy of the papers previously required under this act, shall, when filed in the county clerk's office of the county where such company is to be located, be the authority to commence business and issue policies, and the same may be used in evidence for and against the corporation in all suits. Funds may be invested and mortga ges. S 8. It shall be lawful for any company organized under in bonds this act to invest its funds or accumulations in bonds and mortgages on unincumbered real estate within the State of New York, worth fifty per cent more than the sum so loaned thereon, exclusive of buildings, unless such buildings be insured in a good and solvent insurance company or companies and the policy or policies of insurance be assigned as collateral security for the monies loaned, or in stocks or treasury notes of the United States, stocks of this state, or stocks of any incorporated city of this state, and to lend the same or any part thereof on the security of such bonds and mortgages, and upon the pledge of such stocks, or treasury notes; provided that the current market value of such stocks or treasury notes shall be at least ten per cent more than the sum so loaned thereon. To hold real estate Thus amended by Laws of 1862, ch. 300. $9. No company organized under this act shall be permitted to purchase, hold or convey real estate, except for the purposes and in the manner herein set forth, to wit: 1. Such as shall be requisite for its immediate accommodation in the transaction of its business; or, 2. Such as shall have been mortgaged to it in good faith, by way of security for loans previously contracted, or for moneys due; or, 3. Such as shall have been conveyed to it in satisfaction of debts previously contracted in the course of its dealings; or, 4. Such as shall have been purchased at sales upon judgments, decrees or mortgages obtained or made for such debts; and it shall not be lawful for any company incorporated as aforesaid to purchase, hold or convey real estate in any other case or for any other purpose; and all such real estate as may be acquired as aforesaid, and which shall not be necessary for the accommodation of such company in the convenient transaction of its business, shall be sold and disposed of within five years after such company shall have acquired title to the same; and it shall not be lawful for such company to hold such real estate for a longer period than that above mentioned, unless the said company shall procure a certificate from the comptroller that the interests of the company' will suffer materially by a forced sale of such real estate, in which event the time for the sale may be extended to such time as the comptroller shall direct in said certificate. CHAP. XX. seal, make S 10. The corporators, or the trustees or directors, as the To adopt case may be, of any company organized under this act shall by-laws, &c have power to adopt a seal, and to make such by-laws, not inconsistent with this act or the constitution and laws of this state, as may be deemed necessary for the management of its affairs; and suits at law may be maintained by any corporation formed under this act against any of its members or stockholders for any cause relating to the business of such company; also, suits at law may be prosecuted and maintained by any member or stockholder against such corporation for losses which may have accrued, if payment is withheld more than two months, on all risks, after such losses shall have been due. formed, to corporate. $ 11. All companies formed under this act shall be deemed Companies and taken to be bodies corporate and politic, in fact and in be bodies name, and shall be subject to all the provisions of the Revised Statutes in relation to corporations, so far as the same are applicable, except in regard to annual statements and other matters herein otherwise specially provided for. under oath, annually. 12. It shall be the duty of the president or vice-president Statement, and secretary or actuary, or a majority of the trustees of each to be made company organized under the laws of this state, annually, on the first day of January, or within sixty days thereafter, to prepare under oath, and deposit in the office of the comptroller of the state, a statement, showing: 1. The number of policies issued during the year. 2. The amount of insurance effected thereby. 3. Amount of premium received during the year. 4. Amount of interest and all other receipts, specifying the PART L Statements to be communicated 5. Amount of losses paid during the year. 6. Amount of losses unpaid. 7. Amount of expenses. 8. Whole number of policies in force. 9. Amount of liabilities or risks thereon, and of all other liabilities. 10. Amount of capital stock. 11. Amount of accumulation, specifying whether received upon life insurance, annuities, or how otherwise. 12. Amount of assets and manner in which they are invested, specifying what amount in real estate, on bond and mortgage, stocks, loans, on stocks, premium notes, credits or other securities. 13. Amount of dividend unpaid. 14. A tabular statement of the policies in force for the whole term of life, showing how many thereof for each age of life, and for what amount of risk, were issued or in force during the first year of the existence of the company, during the second year, and so on up to the time of making such statement. 15. A tabular statement of the policies in force for a shorter period than the whole term of life, showing how many thereof for each age of life, and for what amount of risk, were issued, or continued in force during the first year of the company's existence, during the second year, and so on up to the time of making such statement. The comptroller shall cause to be prepared, and furnished to every company to which this act shall apply, printed forms of the statements herein required; and he may make such changes from time to time, in the form of the same, as shall seem to him best adapted to elicit from said companies a true exhibit of their condition in respect to the several points hereinbefore enumerated. S 13. It shall be the duty of the comptroller to cause the information contained in the statements required in the last to the legis section to be arranged in a tabular form, and prepare the same in a single document for printing, which he shall communicate to the Legislature. lature. Agents, for compa nies of $ 14. It shall not be lawful for any person to act within when to act this state, as agent or otherwise, in receiving or procuring other states applications for insurance, or in any manner to aid in transacting the business of insurance referred to in the first section of this act, for any company or association incorporated by, or organized under, the laws of any other state government, unless such company is possessed of the amount of actual capital required by the sixth section of this act, for companies in this state, and the same is invested in stocks or treasury notes of the United States, or of the State of New York, or of the state in which said company is located, or in bonds and mortgages on improved, unincumbered real estate within the state where such company is located, or in such stocks or |