Peerless Insurance Co. v. Manson

135 N.W.2d 258, 27 Wis. 2d 601, 1965 Wisc. LEXIS 944
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 1, 1965
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 135 N.W.2d 258 (Peerless Insurance Co. v. Manson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peerless Insurance Co. v. Manson, 135 N.W.2d 258, 27 Wis. 2d 601, 1965 Wisc. LEXIS 944 (Wis. 1965).

Opinion

Wilkie, J.

The sole issue presented on this appeal is whether a foreign stock insurance company, by reinsuring a portion of its risks with a Wisconsin mutual insurance company, becomes a policyholder-member so as to be liable for assessment.

It is conceded that the reinsurance treaties were silent on whether Peerless was a “policyholder” or “member” and on the entire subject of what liability, if any, Peerless had for [603]*603an assessment by Federal. Any liability of Peerless for the instant assessment did not arise by contract but must be imposed by the provisions of ch. 201, Stats. 1957,1 which deal with insurance companies in general. In Pella Farmers Mut. Ins. Co. v. Hartland Richmond Town Ins. Co.2 this court very recently held that one town mutual company which had reinsured another was required to assess the reinsured company. Respondent contends that the rationale of Pella controls here and thus the crucial question is whether or not Pella is distinguishable.

In Pella, the court found liability for an assessment on the part of the reinsured town mutual impliedly imposed under the provisions of ch. 202, Stats., dealing with town mutual companies. The court stated:
“Nowhere does the statute expressly make a reinsured company a member of a reinsurer town mutual, nor provide that a reinsured company shall be subject to assessment. If that be the law, it is reached only by construction.
“Ch. 202, Stats., deals with three types of situations where one is insured by another: (1) A town mutual agrees to indemnify a property owner for loss of property; (2) a town mutual agrees to indemnify another company for losses on risks of the latter; (3) a reinsurance corporation agrees to indemnify one of its member town mutuals for losses on risks of the latter. In situation (1), the statute explicitly provides that the insured property owner Is a member of the town mutual and is subject to assessment. In situation (3), the statute explicitly provides that the reinsured town mutual is a member of the reinsurance corporation, and quite clearly makes it subject to assessment. In situation (2), however, a conclusion that a reinsured company is a member of a reinsurer town mutual, and subject to assessment by it can only be reached by according great importance to [604]*604keeping the insurance contract relationship between the parties in situation (2) consistent with the relationship in situations (1) and (3).” 3

In finding authority for the assessment in ch. 202, Stats., the court stated :

“Thus the premiums received by a town mutual for insurance are only the primary resource out of which losses are paid. The ultimate reservoir consists of the resources of its members. If the premiums charged do not produce sufficient funds to pay losses of one or more members, then all the members are obligated to provide additional funds sufficient to do so. But if the town mutual has reinsured risks of another company, and losses outrun the collection of premiums, is the entire deficiency to be made up by property-owner members, or is the reinsured company to share the burden? Are the property-owner members of the re-insurer town mutual to be the insurers of the risks of the reinsured company without the mutuality which applies among all insureds with respect to the ordinary risks?
“It seems to us most logical and most in accord with the framework of ch. 202, Stats., that each reinsurance contract should be treated as an additional policy of insurance issued by the reinsurer town mutual, and the reinsured company as a member of the reinsurer, subject to assessment.” 4

And the court concluded:

“We are persuaded that a construction that the reinsureds are members and subject to assessment is more consonant with the statutory pattern of unlimited mutuality which was fundamental to the town mutuals as originally authorized.” 3

In Pella, the statutory requirement that each town mutual policyholder-member subjects himself to unlimited liability for assessment by his company,6 and the statutory require[605]*605ment that each town mutual becomes a policyholder and a member of a town mutual reinsurance company with which it reinsures,7 prescribed a pattern which lead logically to construing ch. 202, Stats., so as to make a town mutual company a policyholder and member of another when it becomes reinsured for part of its risks, and thus to make it subject to an assessment by the reinsuring town mutual.

But in the case at bar, although ch. 201 provides that each policyholder “shall be liable for a pro rata share of losses and expenses incurred during the time the member has been a policyholder” if the liability of all members is not limited by law,8 the chapter permits a limitation which must be expressed in the articles of a mutual insurance company (and in every policy), limiting the liability of members in terms of “a specified number of times the annual premium.” 9 Both the articles of incorporation and bylaws of Federal limit the liability of any member to an assessment equal to an additional annual premium.10 Where liability is limited “the limitation must be expressed in every policy,” 11 and nowhere in ch. 201 are the terms “policyholder” or “mem[606]*606ber” defined. Although the term “policy” is defined as including “every kind and form of contract of insurance” 12 there is no express provision identifying a reinsurance treaty as a form of insurance contract. Ch. 201 authorizes a commercial mutual insurance company to write a reinsurance treaty under which it assumes part of the risks of a stock insurance company on nonassessable policies which that company issues.13 The chapter does not specifically subject such a reinsured stock company to assessment by the rein-suring commercial mutual insurance company; neither does it specifically make such a company a policyholder-member of the reinsurer; nor does it equate reinsurance with insurance.

Peerless urges that there is a great difference between “reinsurance” and “insurance.” It argues that in ch. 201, in at least 13 sections, the legislature alludes to “reinsurance” 14 (in one form or another), indicating a legislative intention to treat reinsurance differently from insurance. Moreover, Peerless cites authorities in which reinsurance is recognized as differing from insurance, e.g., insurance is a contract of direct, original insurance, insuring the original applicant, whereas reinsurance is a contract insuring the insurer of the original applicant; a reinsurance contract is always a contract of indemnity, while an insurance contract may or may not be a contract of indemnity; reinsurance contracts are a practical method whereby the original insuring company takes another company into partnership on a particular- risk.15 Peerless also contends that another [607]*607purpose of reinsurance is to relieve strains on surplus. There are also fundamental distinctions in operations.

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Bluebook (online)
135 N.W.2d 258, 27 Wis. 2d 601, 1965 Wisc. LEXIS 944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peerless-insurance-co-v-manson-wis-1965.