SECTIONS 12950-12959 - California Statutes

INSURANCE CODE

SECTION 12950-12959

12950. Any person interested as owner, assignee, pledgee or payee,
of any policy and desiring any information about such policy, may
apply to the commissioner for a certificate of the facts or
information desired. Such application, filed in duplicate, shall be
accompanied by an affidavit, in duplicate, showing his interest in
the policy.

12951. If the records of his office show the facts or information
desired, the commissioner shall prepare his certificate reciting such
facts or information. If his records do not show the facts or
information desired, he may deliver or mail by certified mail an
order to the insurer, directing it to state such information or facts
in an affidavit and deliver such affidavit to him. If such insurer
is a foreign insurer, the commissioner may deliver or mail by
certified mail such order to its agent for service of process.

12952. In such affidavit the insurer shall make a full, true and
correct statement of all the desired facts and information in its
possession, regardless of the location of its record of such
information.

12953. If such insurer neglects or refuses to make and deliver such
affidavit to the commissioner within ninety days from the date of
the delivery of the order by the commissioner to it or its agent for
service of process, the commissioner shall revoke the certificate of
authority of the insurer.

12954. Immediately after receiving such affidavit from an insurer
the commissioner shall certify such affidavit to the applicant. Such
affidavit so certified by the commissioner shall be delivered to the
applicant personally or by depositing it in the United States post
office, addressed to the applicant, with postage prepaid thereon.

12955. If a loss is sustained under a policy of insurance and such
policy has been lost or destroyed, all rights of every kind and
nature, the time for the presentation of notice of loss, and the time
for the presentation of proof of loss are stayed from the date such
applicant delivers to the commissioner the affidavit showing his
interest until and after five days after the date of the delivery by
the commissioner to the applicant of the affidavit furnished by the
insurer.

12956. Forms of policies filed with the commissioner and writings
in respect thereto shall be open to public inspection except where,
in his judgment, the public welfare or the welfare of any insurer
demands that any portion thereof be not made public. In such cases he
may withhold such information from public inspection for such time
as in his judgment is necessary or advisable.

12957. The commissioner shall not withdraw approval of a policy
previously approved by him or her except upon those grounds as, in
his or her opinion, would authorize disapproval upon original
submission thereof. Any withdrawal of approval shall be in writing
and shall specify the ground thereof. If the insurer demands a
hearing on a withdrawal, the hearing shall be granted and commenced
within 30 days of the filing of a written demand with the
commissioner. Unless the hearing is commenced, the notice of
withdrawal shall become ineffective upon the 31st day from and after
the date of filing of the demand.
This section shall not apply to policies subject to the provisions
of subdivision (f) of Section 10291.5, or to policies, contracts, or
agreements that were approved under an alternative filing and
approval procedure as provided for in subdivision (f) of Section
10506.4 or subdivision (c) of Section 10507.5.

12959. (a) On January 1, 1990, and on every January 1, thereafter,
the commissioner shall publish and distribute a comparison of
insurance rates report for those lines of insurance which, in the
comissioner's judgment, are of most interest to individual purchasers
of personal lines of coverage. The report shall be available to
consumers. The distribution shall be designed to make consumers
throughout the state aware of the content of the report. This report
shall be prepared by the commissioner in a manner designed to provide
information useful to consumers so that they may make informed
comparisons of coverages and rates.
(b) The submission of any false rate information by any such
insurer pursuant to a request of the commissioner for the purpose of
compiling comparative data for the report to be published as required
in subdivision (a), shall be punishable by a civil penalty not to
exceed one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). Any person subject to
regulation by the commissioner pursuant to this code that fails to
comply with a data call required by the department pursuant to this
section shall be liable to the state for a civil penalty in an amount
not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each 30-day period
that the person is not in compliance, unless the failure to comply is
willful, in which case the civil penalty shall be in an amount not
to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for each 30-day period that
the person is not in compliance, but not to exceed an aggregate
amount of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000). In determining the
level of the penalty, the commissioner shall consider the good faith
of the insurer and any similar prior violations by the insurer under
this code.