INSURANCE REPORT. PART I. FIRE, MARINE AND INLAND INSURANCE. OFFICE OF AUDITOR OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS, His Excellency, JOHN M. HAMILTON, Governor of Illinois: SIR-I have the honor to submit herewith Part I of the Fifteenth Annual Insurance Report of this office, exhibiting the financial condition and general business of the insurance companies other than life, admitted to this State at this date, and also showing the business transacted by such companies in the State of Illinois during the year ending December 31, 1882, as presented in the annual statements filed in this office as required by law. The number of companies which have complied with the general laws of this State on the subject of fire and marine insurance, and are authorized to transact business during the current year, is one hundred and ninety, including the companies referred to at the end of Table No. 1. These companies may be classified as follows: Joint stock companies of Illinois... Casualty companies. 8 7 135 3 31 6 190 The number of district, county and township mutual fire insurance companies organized in this State, and authorized to transact business during the current year, is one hundred and forty-five-an increase of three during the past year. The statement of the Esmen Farmers Township Mutual of Rowe, Livingston County, showed the amount of insurance in force to be less than the minimum fixed by law, and the Henry Township -B Mutual, of Henry, Marshall County, failed to file the annual statement required by law. These companies received no certificates of authority for the current year. The Farmers Mutual Aid Association, of Virden, originally incorporated in 1876, appears in this report as a new company. The members of this company filed a new charter in this office February 20, 1883, adopting the same name, assuming the business of the old company and abandoning the old organization. This was done to enable the company to continue writing five-year policies. ADMITTED. Since the date of last report, authority to do business in this State has been given to thirteen companies that had not, prior to the date of such authority, been doing business in Illinois. Table No. 1 gives the name, location, date of admission, and amount of paid up capital stock of each company so admitted. Each company named complied with all the requirements of the insurance laws of this State. TABLE No. 1. Companies of other States and foreign countries admitted to transact business in the State of Illinois, from the date of last report to April 1, 1883. *These companies are not embraced in other tables in this report. pages 436 and 438. Statements on DISCONTINUED. Table No. 2 gives the name, location and capital of each fire and fire marine insurance company of other States which has ceased to do business in this State since the date of my last report. TABLE NO. 2. Name and location of all companies of other States and foreign countries doing business in Illinois, at or since the date of last report, which do not appear in this report; also, showing amount of paid up capital. The following schedule shows the amount and description of all the securities now held by this department for the protection of fire insurance policy holders, and the names of the companies to which they belong. They are deposited under the provisions of the reciprocal section of the Insurance law of this State, Sec. 29, Act of March 11, 1869: The tables which follow hereafter present the following items, pertaining to the aggregate business and condition, December 31, 1882, of all the fire and marine companies which, up to the date of this report, have complied with the laws of this State. TOTAL PAID UP CAPITAL, not including capital stock of foreign companies... $59,889,783 00 TOTAL ADMITTED ASSETS, excluding assessment notes and assets of foreign companies held abroad. TOTAL LIABILITIES, including capital stock and scrip.. TOTAL INCOME.... TOTAL EXPENDITURES. PER CENT. of total income expended. TOTAL RISKS in force.. 178,915,348 26 123,329,931 99 88,315,564 91 82, 458, 769 40 93 37 ..9, 170, 587, 307 02 172,144, 878 03 TOTAL NET ASSETS, including assessment notes of mutual companies........ For every $100 insured the companies hold $1.88 of net assets. Table No. 7 exhibits this information respecting each individual company, and each class of companies, as therein grouped. The business transacted in this State during the year 1892 is as follows: Fire risks written. Marine and inland risks written.. Total risks written...... Premiums received on fire risks written. Total premiums received... Fire, marine and inland losses incurred.. Expenses estimated at 30 per cent. of premiums received..... Leaving an apparent profit of.. on the business in this State during the year. The average premium rate charged is 1.03 cents on every $100 insured. The ratio of losses incurred to risks written is 28 cents on every $100 insured, and to premiums received 27 cents on every dollar received. The amount of business transacted in this State by each company, with the corresponding average premium rate and the ratio of losses to risks written and to premiums received is shown in tables numbered 8 and 9. A comparison of the business of last year with that of former years since 1869 is presented in tables numbered 10 and 11. It exceeds that of any former year since the organization of this department. A comparison of the business of 1882 with that of 1881 shows an increase in amount of insurance written of $12,363,490; an increase in amount of premiums received of $477,803.84; a decrease in amount of losses incurred of $1,051,636.52, and an increase in amount of estimated profit of $1,386,295.23. Two decisions have recently. been rendered by the Supreme Court of this State, in suits resulting from the enforcement of the provisions of the general fire insurance law, which are of sufficient importance to justify their publication in this place. In one suit the constitutionality of section 29-the reciprocal section of the act of March 11, 1869, was involved. The State of New York, in 1880, passed a law, which was amended and re-enacted in 1881, imposing a tax on all fire insurance companies doing business in that State, of 8-10 of one per cent. on the gross amount of premiums received on business done in that State. In 1881 the same rate of tax on premiums received in this State during 1880 was charged against the New York companies doing business in Illinois, by virtue of the reciprocal provisions of section 29 of the general fire insurance law. Several companies refused payment, and the renewal of their authority for the year 1882 was made contingent upon the payment of the tax in question. They finally paid under protest, and brought suit by agreement in the circuit court of Sangamon county to recover the amount so paid. Judgment for defendant was rendered in the circuit court; appeal allowed. and the case was carried to the Supreme Court, September Term, 1882. The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the circuit court, in the following opinion: HOME INSURANCE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, v. CHARLES P. SWIGERT, AUDITOR, ETC. OPINION BY MULKEY, J. Appeal from Sangamon. It will be perceived from the statement which precedes this opinion*, as well as from the argument of counsel for the appellant, that the theory upon which the company seeks to recover back the money paid by it to the Auditor under protest, rests upon the legal assumption that it is not competent for the Legislature to provide a general rate of taxation and of fees to be paid by foreign insurance companies for the privilege of doing an insurance business in this State, as is done by the 30th and other sections of the Insurance Act, and by another provision of the same law, prescribe higher rates and different scales of fees to be paid by such companies upon certain contingencies therein provided for, as is done by the 23th section of the act,-and this is really the main question in the case. The thirtieth section of the act requires all agents of foreign insurance companies doing busine-s in this State to return, for purposes of taxation, to the proper officer of the county, town or other municipality in which their respective agencies are established, in the month of May, annually, the amounts of the net receipts of such agencies for the preceding year, which are declared to be subject to the same rates of taxation, for all purposes, that other personal property is in 'said municipalities, respectively, such tax to be in full of all town and municipal license. The 27th section requires certain fees to be paid by all companies proposing to do an insurance business under the act. Of course, the several sections relating to this subject must be construed together, and when so considered, they in effect declare that the rates of taxation and scale of fees to be paid by foreign companies doing business here shall, in all cases, be governed by the general provisions of the Insurance Act relating to that subject, exclusive of the 29th section, except where the statute of the State to which any such foreign company belongs, has or may hereafter impose upon our own companies doing business therein a higher rate of taxation than is required by the general provisions of our own act, in which case the 29th section is made to govern,—or, in other words, upon such contingency the higher rate of taxation imposed by such foreign State upon our companies doing business there, will, by virtue of the 29th section of our act, be applied to its own companies doing business here. It is clear that if this 29th section is operative and valid at all, and the Auditor may rightfully enforce it whenever a case is brought within its provisions, there can be no recovery in the present action. *See Vol. 104, Ill. Reports, p. 653, for the case as reported. |