Current Status Introducing Body:Senate Bill Number:203 Primary Sponsor:Courson Committee Number:02 Type of Legislation:GB Subject:Insurance, optional no-fault coverage Residing Body:Senate Current Committee:Banking and Insurance Computer Document Number:203 Introduced Date:Jan 08, 1991 Last History Body:Senate Last History Date:Jan 08, 1991 Last History Type:Introduced and read first time, referred to Committee Scope of Legislation:Statewide All Sponsors:Courson Giese Rose Type of Legislation:General Bill
Bill Body Date Action Description CMN
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203 Senate Jan 08, 1991 Introduced and read first 02
time, referred to Committee
203 Senate Sep 17, 1990 Prefiled, referred to 02
Committee
View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.
TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING ARTICLE 4 TO CHAPTER 77 OF TITLE 38 SO AS TO REQUIRE INSURANCE CARRIERS TO PROVIDE OPTIONAL NO-FAULT INSURANCE COVERAGES, TO PROVIDE DEFINITIONS, TO PROVIDE FOR ADDITIONAL OPTIONAL NO-FAULT LIABILITY COVERAGES IN EXCESS OF THE MINIMUM NO-FAULT POLICY REQUIREMENTS, TO PROVIDE FOR THE PAYMENT OF NO-FAULT BENEFITS, AND TO PROVIDE FOR A NO-FAULT INSURED'S LIABILITY UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Chapter 77, Title 38 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 38-77-390. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an automobile insurance carrier operating in this State must offer, at the time of the option of the insured, an alternative no-fault automobile insurance option. Each insurer must also provide optional excess no-fault automobile insurance coverages which may be purchased by the insured. This optional excess coverage, if purchased by the insured, shall begin upon the exhaustion of the minimum no-fault benefits which are required by this article.
Section 38-77-400. As used in this article:
(1) 'Accidental harm' means bodily injury, death, sickness, or disease caused by a motor vehicle accident to a person.
(2) 'No-fault benefits' with respect to accidental harm means:
(a) All appropriate and reasonable expenses necessarily incurred for medical, hospital, surgical, professional nursing, dental, optometric, ambulance, or prosthetic services, products, and accommodations furnished;
(b) All appropriate and reasonable expenses necessarily incurred for psychiatric, physical, and occupational therapy and rehabilitation; and
(c) Monthly earnings loss measured by an amount equal to the lesser of:
(i) Nine hundred dollars a month; or
(ii) The monthly earnings for the period during which the accidental harm results in the inability to engage in available and appropriate gainful activity.
(3) 'No-fault policy' means a minimum liability coverage of:
(a) fifteen thousand dollars for bodily
injury to any person; and
(b) ten thousand dollars for property damage.
If the insured has excess optional no-fault insurance coverage, the limits of the policy shall apply.
(4) 'No-fault insured' means:
(a) A person identified by name as an insured in a no-fault policy complying with this article; and
(b) While residing in the same household with a named insured, the following persons not identified by name as an insured in any other contract of no-fault policy complying with this article:
(i) a spouse or other relative of a named insured; and
(ii) a minor in the custody of a named insured or of a relative residing in the same household with a named insured. A person
resides in the same household if the person usually makes the person's home in the same family unit, even though the person temporarily lives elsewhere.
(5) 'Without regard to fault' means irrespective of fault as a cause of accidental harm, and without application of the principle of liability based on negligence.
Section 38-77-410. (A) If the accident causing accidental harm occurs in this State, a person insured under this article, and the person's survivors, suffering loss from accidental harm arising out of the operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle has a right to no-fault benefits.
(B) If the accident causing accidental harm occurs outside this State, the following persons and their survivors suffering loss from accidental harm arising out of the operation, maintenance, or use of a motor vehicle shall have a right to no-fault benefits:
(1) No-fault insureds; and
(2) The driver and other occupants of an insured vehicle, other than a vehicle which is used in the course of the business of transporting persons or property and which is one of five or more vehicles under common ownership.
(C) The total no-fault benefits payable per person or on the person's death to the person's survivor or survivors on account of accidental harm sustained by the person in a motor vehicle accident must be determined by the no-fault policy.
Section 38-77-430. A no-fault insurer must provide no-fault benefits for accidental harm as follows:
(1) Except as otherwise provided in Section 38-77-450:
(a) In the case of injury arising out of a motor vehicle accident to a person, including the owner, operator, occupant, or user of the insured motor vehicle, or a pedestrian (including a bicyclist); or
(b) In the case of death arising out of a motor vehicle accident of a person, including the owner, operator, occupant, or user of the insured motor vehicle, or a pedestrian (including a bicyclist), who sustains accidental harm as the result of the operation, maintenance, or use of the vehicle, the insurer must pay, without regard to fault, to the legal representative of the person, for the benefit of the surviving spouse and a dependent, as defined in Section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, of a person, an amount equal to the no-fault benefits payable to the spouse and dependent as a result of the death of the person, subject, however, to the provisions of Section 38-77-400(1); or
(c) Payment of no-fault benefits must be paid as the benefits accrue, except in the case of death, payment of the benefits may, at the option of the beneficiary, be paid immediately in a lump sum payment.
(2) Payment of no-fault benefits must be paid within thirty days after the insurer has received reasonable proof of the fact and amount of benefits accrued, and the demand for payment. If the insurer elects to deny a claim for benefits in whole or in part, the insurer must within thirty days notify the claimant in writing of the denial and the reasons for the denial. The denial notice must be prepared and mailed by the insurer in triplicate copies and be in a format approved by the Commissioner. If the insurer cannot pay or denies the claim for benefits because additional information or loss documentation is needed, the insurer must, within the thirty days, forward the claimant an itemized list of all the required documents.
(3) Amounts of benefits which are unpaid thirty days after the insurer has received reasonable proof of the fact and amount of benefits accrued, and the demand for payment after the expiration of the thirty days, must bear interest at the rate of one and one-half percent per month.
(4) No-fault benefits may not be applied in any manner as attorney's fees in the case of injury or death for which the benefits are paid. The insurer must pay, in addition to the no-fault benefits due, all attorney's fees and the costs of settlement or suit, necessary to effect the payment of any or all no-fault benefits found due under the contract.
Section 38-77-450. (A) A claim for no-fault benefits may not be made against an insurer for the accidental harm of a person unless the person is involved in the motor vehicle accident.
(B) A payment of no-fault benefits may not be made to the occupants of a motor vehicle other than the insured motor vehicle, or to the operator or user of a motor vehicle engaging in a crime classified as a felony as defined in Section 16-1-10 which causes any loss.
(C) The no-fault insurance is applicable only to accidental harm and property damage to which this article applies and is the insurance on the vehicle occupied by the injured person at the time of the accident.
Section 38-77-460. A person insured under existing tort based liability insurance, who is
involved in an accident with a no-fault insured, must file a claim under his uninsured motorist coverage unless the claim meets the requirements of Section 38-77-470.
Section 38-77-470. (A) Tort liability of the owner, operator, or user of an insured motor vehicle when involved in a motor vehicle accident with a no-fault insured, or the operator or user of an uninsured motor vehicle who operates or uses such vehicle without reason to believe it to be an uninsured motor vehicle, with respect to accidental harm arising from motor vehicle accidents occurring in this State, is abolished, except as to the following persons or their personal representatives, or legal guardians, and in the following circumstances:
(1) Death occurs to the person in a motor vehicle accident; or injury occurs to the person which consists, in whole or in part, in a significant permanent loss of use of a part or function of the body; or injury occurs to such person which consists of a permanent and serious disfigurement which results in subjection of the injured person to mental or emotional suffering;
(2) Injury occurs to the person in a motor vehicle accident in which the benefits paid or accrued exceed the medical-rehabilitative limit in Section 38-77-500(B) for expenses provided in Section 38-77-400(2)(a) and (b); provided that the expenses paid must be presumed to be reasonable and necessary in establishing the medical-rehabilitative limit; or
(3) Injury occurs to the person in an accident and as a result of the injury, the aggregate limit of the minimum no-fault benefits outlined in Section 38-77-400(3) payable to the person are exhausted.
This section applies whether or not the injured person is entitled to receive no-fault benefits. The person against whom the presumption under this section is directed has the burden of proof to rebut the presumption.
(B) A claim may not be made for benefits under the uninsured motorist coverage by an injured person against an insurer who has paid or is liable to pay no-fault benefits to the injured person unless the claim meets the requirements of the foregoing subsection (A)(1), (2) or (3).
(C) A provision of this section may not be construed to exonerate, or in any manner to limit, the liability of any person in the business of manufacturing, retailing, repairing, servicing, or otherwise maintaining motor vehicles, arising from a defect in a motor vehicle caused, or not corrected, by an act or omission in the manufacturing, retailing, repairing, servicing, or other maintenance of a vehicle in the course of the person's business.
(D) A provision of this section may not be construed to exonerate, or in any manner to limit the criminal or civil liability, including special and general damages, of any person in the maintenance, operation, or use of any motor vehicle.
(E) A provision of this article shall be construed to abolish tort liability from motor vehicle accidents with respect to damages which exceed the minimum no-fault policy coverage in Section 38-77-400(3).
Section 38-77-500. (A) A no-fault policy is an insurance policy covering a motor vehicle and must provide, in addition to the coverage specified in Section 38-77-430, insurance coverage to pay on behalf of the owner or any operator of the insured motor vehicle using the motor vehicle with the express or implied permission of the named insured, sums which the owner may legally be obligated to pay for injury, death, or damage to the property of others, except property owned by, being transported by, or in charge of the insured, which arise out of the ownership, operation, maintenance, or use of the motor vehicle.
(B) In addition to the no-fault coverages described in Section 38-77-470, an insurer issuing a no-fault policy must make available to the insured optional excess insurance under the following conditions:
(1) Optional excess liability coverages that exceed the minimum no-fault coverage limits as may be considered necessary by the Department of Insurance and authorized by regulations, except that these coverages must be consistent with this chapter;
(2) At the option of the insured, an insurer must offer provisions covering loss resulting from damage to the insured's motor vehicle with such deductibles, including two hundred fifty dollars, as the Commissioner by regulation must provide; and
(3) At appropriately reduced premium rates, no-fault insurers must offer deductibles, applicable only to claims of no-fault insureds and, in case of death of a no-fault insured, of the insured's survivors, in the amounts of one hundred dollars, three hundred dollars and five hundred dollars, from all no-fault benefits otherwise payable, except that if two or more no-fault insureds to whom the deductible is applicable under the contract of insurance are injured in the same accident, the aggregate amount of the deductible applicable to all of the no-fault insureds must not exceed the specified deductible, which amount where necessary must be allocated equally among them."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect one hundred eighty days after the approval by the Governor.