Cullers v. Home Credit Co.

203 S.E.2d 544, 130 Ga. App. 441, 1973 Ga. App. LEXIS 1345
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedNovember 28, 1973
Docket48020
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 203 S.E.2d 544 (Cullers v. Home Credit Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cullers v. Home Credit Co., 203 S.E.2d 544, 130 Ga. App. 441, 1973 Ga. App. LEXIS 1345 (Ga. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinions

Eberhardt, Presiding Judge.

Appellant brings this appeal from the denial of his motion to set aside a default judgment entered in a suit on a contract made pursuant to the Industrial Loan Act (Ga. L. 1955, p. 431, as amended; Code Ann. § 25-301 et seq.). Held:

1. The original grounds of the motion to set aside, and enumeration of error 1, present the question of whether a lender may sell to the borrower any type of credit life insurance other than declining term. We dealt with this in Mason v. Service Loan &c. Co., 128 Ga. App. 828 (3) (198 SE2d 391), holding that either type of credit life insurance in connection with industrial loans is lawful, which we here follow. See Comptroller-General’s Industrial Loan Regulations, § 120-l-ll-.02(2) (a, b).

2. The amendment to the motion to set aside, and enumeration of error 2, complain that appellee violated Ga. L. 1955, pp. 431, 444 (Code Ann. § 25-319) by failing to disclose on the loan statement or on the loan contract that appellant was receiving level term, as opposed to decreasing term, credit life insurance. The statute in question provides that "At the time the loan is made, each licensee hereunder shall deliver to the borrower ... a copy of the loan contract or a written itemized statement in the English language showing in clear terms . . . the amount of each class of insurance carried and the premiums paid thereon . . .” The Statement of Loan provides, in part: "The Amount Financed will be disbursed to or for Borrower as follows: Credit Life Insurance [442]*442Premium-$24; Credit Accident and Health Ins. Premium -$36; Personal Property Insurance Premium-$24; Auto Physical Damage Insurance Premium etc.-$-0-.”

Elsewhere in the contract appears "Amount of Life Insurance-$600 .... Accident and Health Insurance Monthly Benefit-$25 . . . Insurance-The purchase of Credit Life or Credit Accident and Health Insurance is not required by Lender in order to obtain a loan. Borrower, however, having first examined the cost of such insurance, as indicated opposite, does hereby voluntarily elect to purchase the following coverages: [7] Credit Life Insurance GO Credit Accident and Health Insurance [dated and signed by borrower]”

Credit life insurance, being a form of life insurance, is a part of that "class” of insurance as defined in Code Ann. § 56-305, whether it be level or reducing term.

3. "Credit Level Term Life Insurance or group credit level term life insurance may be written as security on all loans made under the provisions of the Industrial Loan Act. Insurance coverage shall not exceed the face amount of the contract.” Comptroller-General’s Industrial Loan Regulations, § 120-1-11-.02 (a). (Emphasis supplied.)

"Credit reducing term life insurance or group credit reducing term life insurance may be written on all loans made under the provisions of the Act. Insurance coverage shall not exceed the face amount of the contract.” Comptroller-General’s Industrial Loan Regulations, § 120-1-11-.02 (b).

There is no provision, either in the statute (Code Ann. §§ 25-315 and 56-3306) or in the Commissioner’s Regulations requiring that the borrower be given the option as to which type of credit life insurance is to be written. It is required that the statement of the transaction show the amount of the insurance and the premium to be paid therefor. That was done. The insurance policy or certificate must be delivered within 30 days after acceptance of the application and risk. The application must indicate the effective date. Code Ann. § 56-3306.

There is, of course, as between level term and declining or reducing term insurance, some difference in the premium to be paid and in the benefit which may result to the borrower. If it is desirable that the borrower be afforded the option as to which of these he will buy, it is a matter that is within the power delegated by the General Assembly to the commissioner (see Code Ann. § 25-315) [443]*443and provision for the option should be made in his regulations,1 — not by the court. It is a legislative function which either the General Assembly or the commissioner may perform, but we have no legislative power.

Since the commissioner has already provided that level term credit life insurance may be written as security for all loans made under the Act, which he was authorized to do under Code Ann. § 25-315, and the licensees of this state have acted under the regulation when writing level term insurance, the courts should not void the loans simply because, in our view, the regulations should go further and provide for the giving of an option to the borrower as to whether he will buy level or reducing term insurance.

There can be no fair way of effecting such a requirement except by the adoption of a rule or regulation in accordance with the provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1964, §§ 3 and 4 (Code Ann. §§ 3A-103, 3A-104), which declares our public policy as requiring the giving of advance notice to all who may be interested and the holding of a public hearing before promulgating the rule or regulation, and, of course, it is to be given prospective effect from the effective date.2 Code Ann. § 3A-106.

We are required to take judicial notice of any rule or regulation which the commissioner has adopted in conformity with the Administrative Procedure Act. Code Ann. § 3A-108. Consequently, at this time we must judicially know that it is [444]*444provided under the commissioner’s regulations, § 120-1-11-.02 (a) that the lender may write level term credit life insurance as security for all loans made under the Industrial Loan Act, or he may, if he so chooses, write reducing term credit life insurance on them, and that since, at the time this loan was made, nothing in either the Industrial Loan Act or in the commissioner’s regulations required that an option be afforded to the borrower as to which he would buy, it was not a violation of the law for the lender to write or sell only one of these types of insurance. If it is not required by law, or by regulation having the effect of law, we can not say that it must be included in the statement of the transaction required to be delivered to the borrower under Code Ann. § 25-319.

We agree that "the law on this question is not simply what the judges of this court think the law should be but what the General Assembly has said it is.” Horton v. Brown, 117 Ga. App. 47, 49 (159 SE2d 489). It is to be found in the Industrial Loan Act, and in the commissioner’s regulations, issued pursuant to the authorization therein found, and our judgment is rested upon them.

4. The disclosure here fully complies with the requirements of the Truth in Lending Act, 15 USC § 1505 (5), providing that where imposed directly or indirectly by the creditor as an incident to the extension of credit, the "premium or other charge for guarantee or insurance protecting the creditor against the obligor’s default or other credit loss” is a part of the finance charge to be disclosed. However, by the terms of 15 USC § 1605 (b) the premium is not a part of the finance charge (1) if the coverage is not a factor in the extension of the credit, or (2) if the person to whom credit is to be extended gives specific written indication of his desire to obtain the insurance after written disclosure to him of the amount of the premium. The record shows this was done.

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Cullers v. Home Credit Co.
203 S.E.2d 544 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
203 S.E.2d 544, 130 Ga. App. 441, 1973 Ga. App. LEXIS 1345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cullers-v-home-credit-co-gactapp-1973.