Pennsylvania Ass'n of Life Underwriters v. Commonwealth

371 A.2d 564, 29 Pa. Commw. 459, 1977 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 789
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 1, 1977
DocketNo. 176 C.D. 1976
StatusPublished
Cited by26 cases

This text of 371 A.2d 564 (Pennsylvania Ass'n of Life Underwriters v. Commonwealth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pennsylvania Ass'n of Life Underwriters v. Commonwealth, 371 A.2d 564, 29 Pa. Commw. 459, 1977 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 789 (Pa. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Blatt,

The Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner promulgated certain regulations, entitled Disclosures in Solicitations of Life Insurance, found at 31 Pa. Code §83, and stated as authority for such regulations The Insurance Unfair Practices Act.1 The Pennsylvania Association of Life Underwriters and certain individuals (plaintiffs) filed a complaint in equity within our original jurisdiction which challenged the Commissioner’s authority to promulgate these regulations and which sought to permanently restrain the Commissioner from enforcing them. Because there are no issues of material fact to be resolved, the plaintiffs have moved for judgment on the pleadings and, we, therefore, are concerned here with the legal issue of whether or not the Commissioner had authority to promulgate these regulations.

[461]*461Initially, we note that

[t]he authority of a public administrative agency ordinarily includes the power to make or adopt rules and regulations with respect to matters within the province of such agency, provided such rules and regulations are not inconsistent with law. In exercising its power, an administrative body may adopt or make only such rules and regulations as are necessary and reasonable, and it may not act arbitrarily. While an administrative agency ordinarily may adopt and follow a regulatory policy with respect to matters within its administrative discretion, the exercise of such discretion is not without some limitation, and no declared regulatory policy of an administrative policy [sic] may preclude the future exercise of its functions as an administrative agency of the Legislature.
The exercise by an administrative agency of its rule-making function is subject to limitations arising from the fact that its authority is a delegated power. The power of such an agency to prescribe rules and regulations under a statute is only a power to adopt regulations to carry into effect the will of the Legislature as expressed by statute. Administrative agencies are not empowered to make rules and regulations which are violative of or exceed the powers given them by the statutes and the law, but must keep within the bounds of their statutory authority in the promulgation of general rules and orders.

1 Pennsylvania Law Encyclopedia, Administrative Law and Procedure, Chp. 2, §32 at 281-282.

It is clear that there are two types of administrative rule-making power; legislative and interpretative. [462]*462Uniontown Area School District v. Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, 455 Pa. 52, 313 A.2d 156 (1973).

A legislative rule is the product of an exercise of legislative .power by an administrative agency, pursuant to a grant of legislative power. by the legislative body. In the clearest case of a legislative' rule, a statute has conferred power upon the agency to issue the rule and the statute provides that the rule, .if within the granted power, shall have the force of law. But a legislative rule may rest upon an applied or an unclear grant of power as well as upon an express and clear grant of power. When a rule is legislative, the reviewing court has no authority to substitute judgment as to the content of the rule, for the legislative body has placed the power in the agency and not in< the court. A legislative rule is valid and is as binding upon a court as a statute if it is (a) within the granted power, (b) issued pursuant to proper procedure, and (c) reasonable.
An interpretative rule may or may not have force of law, depending upon such factors as (a) whether the court agrees or disagrees with the rule, (b) the extent to which the subject matter is within special administrative competence and beyond general judicial competence, (c) whether the rule is a contemporaneous construction of the statute by those who are assigned the task of implementing and enforcing the statute, (d) whether the rule is one of longstanding, and (e) whether the statute has been reenacted by legislators who know of the contents of the rule.
[463]*463Interpretative rules sometimes rest upon statutory authorisation to issue them hut more commonly merely grow out of other tasks assigned to the agency. (Emphasis added.)

1 K. C. Davis, Administrative Law Treatise, §5.03 at 299-300.

Accord, Uniontown Area School District, supra. The validity of an interpretative rule2 does not rest “upon a law-maldmg grant of power, but rather upon the willingness of a reviewing court to say that it in fact tracks the meaning of the statute it interprets.” Uniontown Area School District, supra, 455 Pa. at 77, 313 A.2d at 169. (Emphasis in original.)

The declared purpose of the Unfair Insurance Practices Act3 (Act)

is to regulate trade practices in the business of insurance in accordance with the intent of congress as expressed in the act of Congress of March 9, 1945 (Public Law 15, 79th Congress), by defining or providing for the determination of all such practices in this state which constitute unfair methods of competition or unfair or deceptive acts or practices and by prohibiting the trade practices so defined or determined.

Section 2 of the Act, 40 P.S. §1171.2.

Section 4 of the Act, 40 P.S. §1171.4, provides as follows:

No person shall engage in this state in any trade practice which is defined or determined to be an unfair method of. competition or an unfair or deceptive act or practice in the business of insurance pursuant to this act.

Section 5 of the Act, 40 P.S. §1171.5, defines unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive prac[464]*464tices in the business of insurance. The Act further provides that the Gonunissioner, in his discretion, “may examine and investigate the affairs of every person engaged in the business of insurance in this state in order to determine whether such person has been or is engaged in any . . . practice prohibited by this act,” Section 7 of the Act, 40 P.S. §1171.7, and that he may administratively prosecute such violations, Section 8 of the Act, 40 P.S. §1171.8, and enforce penalties upon such violators. Sections 9 through 13 of the Act, 40 P.S. §§1171.9-.13.

The declared purpose of the regulations here concerned

is to protect the purchaser from misrepresentation, unfair comparison and deceptive and misleading sales methods in the solicitation of life insurance by setting standards for disclosure of minimal information pertinent to a life insurance contract.

31 Pa. Code §83.1(a).

We believe that the Commissioner here has implied authority to promulgate the regulations here involved, which authority is derived from his statutory power and duty to enforce the Act by investigating, prosecuting and penalizing violations thereof. See Uniontown Area School District, supra, 455 Pa. at 78, 313 A.2d at 170 (“statutory provisions . . . evidence to us a legislative intent to empower the Commission to do a good deal more than merely interpret the Act”); Volunteer Firemen’s Relief Association v. Minehart, 425 Pa.

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Bluebook (online)
371 A.2d 564, 29 Pa. Commw. 459, 1977 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 789, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pennsylvania-assn-of-life-underwriters-v-commonwealth-pacommwct-1977.