The director may apply by petition to the circuit court of Hughes County for an order authorizing him to rehabilitate a domestic insurer or an alien insurer domiciled in this state on any one or more of the following grounds:

(1) The insurer is in such condition that the further transaction of business would be hazardous, financially, to its policyholders, creditors, or the public;

Terms Used In South Dakota Codified Laws 58-29B-31

  • Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
  • Embezzlement: In most states, embezzlement is defined as theft/larceny of assets (money or property) by a person in a position of trust or responsibility over those assets. Embezzlement typically occurs in the employment and corporate settings. Source: OCC
  • Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
  • Forgery: The fraudulent signing or alteration of another's name to an instrument such as a deed, mortgage, or check. The intent of the forgery is to deceive or defraud. Source: OCC
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • Person: includes natural persons, partnerships, associations, cooperative corporations, limited liability companies, and corporations. See South Dakota Codified Laws 2-14-2
  • Property: includes property, real and personal. See South Dakota Codified Laws 2-14-2
  • State: when used in context signifying a jurisdiction other than the State of South Dakota, a state, the District of Columbia, a territory, commonwealth, or possession of the United States of America, or a province of the Dominion of Canada. See South Dakota Codified Laws 58-1-2
  • Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
  • Transfer: includes the sale and every other and different mode, direct or indirect, of disposing of or of parting with property or with an interest therein, or with the possession thereof or of fixing a lien upon property or upon an interest therein, absolutely or conditionally, voluntarily, by or without judicial proceedings. See South Dakota Codified Laws 58-29B-3
  • Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
  • written: include typewriting and typewritten, printing and printed, except in the case of signatures, and where the words are used by way of contrast to typewriting and printing. See South Dakota Codified Laws 2-14-2

(2) There is reasonable cause to believe that there has been embezzlement from the insurer, wrongful sequestration or diversion of the insurer’s assets, forgery or fraud affecting the insurer, or other illegal conduct in, by, or with respect to the insurer that if established would endanger assets in an amount threatening the solvency of the insurer;

(3) The insurer has failed to remove any person who in fact has executive authority in the insurer, whether an officer, manager, general agent, employee, or other person, if the person has been found after notice and hearing by the director to be dishonest or untrustworthy in a way affecting the insurer’s business;

(4) Control of the insurer, whether by stock ownership or otherwise, and whether direct or indirect, is in any person found after notice and hearing to be untrustworthy;

(5) Any person who in fact has executive authority in the insurer, whether an officer, manager, general agent, director or trustee, employee, or other person, has refused to be examined under oath by the director concerning its affairs, whether in this state or elsewhere, and after reasonable notice of the fact the insurer has failed promptly and effectively to terminate the employment and status of the person and all his influence on management;

(6) After demand by the director under this title, the insurer has failed to promptly make available for examination any of its own property, books, accounts, documents, or other records, or those of any subsidiary or related company within the control of the insurer, or those of any person having executive authority in the insurer so far as they pertain to the insurer;

(7) Without first obtaining the written consent of the director, the insurer has transferred, or attempted to transfer, in a manner contrary to chapter 58-5 or chapter 58-5A, substantially its entire property or business, or has entered into any transaction the effect of which is to merge, consolidate, or reinsure substantially its entire property or business in or with the property or business of any other person;

(8) The insurer or its property has been or is the subject of an application for the appointment of a receiver or trustee, custodian, conservator or sequestrator or similar fiduciary of the insurer or its property otherwise than as authorized under the insurance laws of this state, and such appointment has been made or is imminent, and such appointment might oust the courts of this state of jurisdiction or might prejudice orderly delinquency proceedings under this chapter;

(9) Within the previous four years the insurer has willfully violated its charter or articles of incorporation, its bylaws, any insurance law of this state, or any valid order of the director under the provisions of this chapter;

(10) The insurer has failed to pay within sixty days after due date any obligation to any state or any subdivision thereof or any judgment entered in any state, if the court in which such judgment was entered had jurisdiction over such subject matter except that such nonpayment is not a ground until sixty days after any good faith effort by the insurer to contest the obligation has been terminated, whether it is before the director or in the courts, or the insurer has systematically attempted to compromise or renegotiate previously agreed settlements with its creditors on the ground that it is financially unable to pay its obligation in full;

(11) The insurer has failed to file its annual report or other financial report required by statute within the time allowed by law and, after written demand by the director, has failed to give an adequate explanation immediately;

(12) The board of directors of the holders of a majority of the shares entitled to vote, or a majority of those individuals entitled to the control of the entities request, or consent to rehabilitation under this chapter.

Source: SL 1989, ch 436, § 31; SL 1991, ch 404, § 3.