Request By:
Mr. Harold B. McGuffey, Commissioner
Department of Insurance
Second Floor, Capital Plaza Tower
Frankfort, Kentucky 40601
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Joseph R. Johnson, Assistant Attorney General
This letter is in response to your request for an opinion of this office regarding the question of whether the Commissioner of Insurance may by Administrative Regulation authorize the issuance of limited licenses to agents selling only mortgage redemption term life insurance or crop hail insurance.
The 1978 General Assembly amended KRS 304.9-230(1) to qualify for limited licenses agents writing industrial insurance or agents licensed by insurers issuing policies with a face amount not in excess of $5,000 on the debit plan. The amendment was contained in Senate Bill 92; Chapter 161. Agents writing mortgage redemption term life insurance or crop hail insurance were not included in this amendment.
On July 20, 1978, the Joint Interim Committee on Banking and Insurance passed a Resolution which stated that although it had been the legislative intent to qualify for limited licenses agents writing only mortgage redemption insurance or crop hail insurance, nevertheless these agents had been omitted from the amendment because of a drafting error. The Resolution proceeds to request the Commissioner of Insurance to promulgate a Regulation to qualify those agents for limited licenses if this is permissible under the law.
Obviously, a Committee Resolution cannot rise to the level of a law. Section 46 of the Kentucky Constitution sets forth the procedures for passing a bill. No. bill can be considered for final passage unless it has been reported by a committee and received the votes of at least two-fifths of the members elected to each house and a majority of the members voting. Section 56 provides that no bill shall become law unless it has been signed by the presiding officer of each of the two houses in open session and then sent to the governor for his signature and approval.
Of course, in any matter involving statutory construction, the will or intent of the legislature must control.
Wesley v. Board of Education of Nicholas County, Ky. 403 S.W.2d 28. However, the legislative intent must be expressed or reasonably implied in the language used.
Davis. v. Commonwealth Life Insurance Company, Ky. 284 S.W.2d 809; Holsclaw v. Stephens, Ky. 507 S.W.2d 462.
KRS 304.2-110(1) states as follows:
The commissioner may make reasonable rules and regulations necessary for or as an aid to the effectuation of any provision of this code. No such rule or regulation shall extend, modify, or conflict with any law of this state or the reasonable implications thereof.
Senate Bill 92, Chapter 161 which amended KRS 304.9-230 now has the full force of law having been duly enacted by the 1978 General Assembly in accordance with the procedures set forth by Section 46 and 56 of the Kentucky Constitution. The Banking and Insurance Committee Resolution does not have the force of law. Therefore, the Resolution may not extend any law of this state.
In point of fact, the Committee Resolution does go beyond the express and implied language of KRS 304.9-230. It does not attempt to interpret the language of the amendment itself. This statute expressly qualifies certain classes of agents for limited licenses but is silent as to agents writing mortgage redemption term life insurance and crop hail insurance. The inclusion of these classes of agents in KRS 304.9-230 cannot be implied in the language used.
In summation, if the Committee Resolution is seen as an attempted amendment to KRS 304.9-230, it is to no avail because the Resolution does not have the force of law. Secondly, if the Resolution is viewed as an expression of legislative intent, it is to no avail because the committee may not authorize the Commissioner to act beyond his statutory authority. Because the Commissioner may not extend any law of this state through an Administrative Regulation, he may not include agents selling mortgage redemption term life or crop hail insurance in the qualifying statute. Only a subsequent amendment to KRS 304.9-230 by an official Act of the General Assembly can qualify these agents for limited licenses.