Delaware § 529 - Cancellation of insurance agency contracts; arbitration.

§ 529. Cancellation of insurance agency contracts; arbitration.

(a) Every insurance company shall notify the Insurance Commissioner or the Commissioner’s successor and the agency involved of the intent to cancel any written or verbal agency contract, except life insurance contracts, 30 days prior to issuance of the notice of cancellation.

(b) No insurance company may cancel an agency without giving 12 months notice, except where fraud exists or where an agency is more than 60 days in arrears of money owed to the insurance company in question. This notice shall be in writing and, upon the option of the company, may prohibit the agency from writing any new business for this particular company, but will allow the agency to renew all existing business in this 12-month period and will allow the agency to have binding authority to make endorsements or other changes to existing business and will provide for the same rate of commission for the 12-month period.

(c) The Insurance Commissioner shall appoint an arbitration board to arbitrate the cancellation of agency contracts. This board shall consist of 3 arbitrators, 1 of whom shall be from the Insurance Department, and 2 of whom shall be from the insurance industry.

(d) The purpose of this board is to determine whether an agency cancellation will adversely affect the public interest. If such a determination is made, the board shall prescribe a method of cancellation to be followed by both parties. The decision of the board of arbitration shall be binding upon the company and agency involved.

(e) (1) This subsection shall not apply in an instance where such company:

a. Employs an agent directly; or

b. Has an exclusive business arrangement with an agent.

(2) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, a company may not cancel the contract of an independent agent for property and casualty insurance solely because of adverse underwriting experience in the line of private passenger insurance to the extent losses incurred by the insurer were not the fault of the insured.

(3) This subsection does not apply to adverse underwriting experience on losses incurred by the company on:

a. Bodily injury coverage;

b. Property damage coverage;

c. Collision coverage; or

d. To the extent that the losses incurred by the insurer were the fault of the insured, personal injury protection coverage and comprehensive coverage.

18 Del. C. 1953, §  529;  56 Del. Laws, c. 380, §  1;  58 Del. Laws, c. 184;  70 Del. Laws, c. 186, §  1;  71 Del. Laws, c. 161, §  1;