2098 ARTICLE 48A

neglect or refusal had been a witness summoned to appear in said Court
in a case pending before it.

The requirement of this section that the insurance commissioner be a party to any
proceeding to close up the affairs of an insurance company was satisfied where the
commissioner was made defendant to an amended bill and so remained until after the
order appealed from, when he was by order made a party, plaintiff. Great Nat. Ins. Co.
v. Fire Ins. Co., 165 Md. 515.

1933, ch. 152. 1935, ch. 151.

11. The Insurance Commissioner of this State shall have power to
make, alter, amend and rescind rules and regulations imposing any con-
dition upon the conduct of the business of any insurance company which
may be necessary or desirable to maintain sound methods of insurance and
to safeguard the interests of policyholders, beneficiaries, obligees and the
public generally, during the period of such emergency, which rules and
regulations shall have the force of law and shall become inoperative when
such emergency shall cease, and an order to that effect shall be made by
said Commissioner, but in no event shall this section be effective for
more than two years from the date of its passage.¹

An. Code, 1924, sec. 11. 1922, ch. 492, sec. 12. 1927, ch. 394, sec. 11.

12. (Annual Report to Governor.) The Commissioner shall preserve
in permanent form a full record of. his proceedings, and a concise state-
ment of the condition of each company visited or examined, and report
annually to the Governor, on or before the first day of September, his
official acts. In his report to the Governor he shall report the condition
of the companies doing business in this State, and such other information
as will exhibit the affairs of his department; a copy of which said report
to the Governor he shall forward to the Insurance Commissioner or other
similar officer of every other State of the United States, and to each com-
pany doing business in this State; and on request he shall communicate to
the Insurance Commissioner, or other proper officer of any other State,
any facts which by law it is his duty to ascertain respecting companies
of this State doing business within such other State; and at the request of
any person, and on payment of the proper fee, as hereinafter provided, he
shall give certified copies of any record or paper in his office when he
deems it not prejudicial to the public interest so to do, and he shall give
such other certificates as this Article provides for. He shall adopt and
renew from time to time, when necessary, with the approval of the Gov-
ernor, a seal of office, an impression and description of which, with the
Governor's certificate of approval, shall be filed with the Secretary of State.

General Provisions.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 13. 1922, ch. 492, sec. 14. 1939, ch. 529.

13. (Formation of Insurance Corporations.) Corporations may be
formed under the provisions of Article 23 of the Code of Public General
Laws for insurance purposes, and may be formed either as mutual or
stock companies, as shall be determined and declared in the certificate of
incorporation of any such company.

¹ This section is apparently no longer in effect, but any rules, regulations, etc., made
under its authority may still have some application.