Marvin Mandel, Governor                           993

Maryland Automobile Insurance Plan or the Maryland Property
Insurance Availability Act is not an "assessment" as used in sub-
section (a) of this section.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1970.

Approved April 28, 1970

CHAPTER 420
(Senate Bill 272)

AN ACT to repeal and re-enact, with amendments, Sections 252 and
253 of Article 48A of the Annotated Code of Maryland (1957
Edition, 1968 Replacement Volume and 1969 Supplement) title
"Insurance Code," subtitle "17. Stock and Mutual Insurers," to
correct an error in codification and to provide for the repeal of
subsection (c) of Section 252 and to add subsection (g) to Sec-
tion 253 to follow immediately after subsection (f), all relating
to the assets and operations of certain mutual insurers.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That Sections 252 and 253 of Article 48A of the Annotated Code
of Maryland (1957 Edition, 1968 Replacement Volume and 1969
Supplement) be and the same are hereby repealed and re-enacted,
with amendments, to read as follows:

252. Qualification of Mutuals; Assets Required.

(a)  No mutual insurer shall be issued a certificate of authority
until bona fide applications have been received and cash premiums
collected in such amount that the premiums, together with any other
funds which may be legally available, will result in the insurer hav-
ing unencumbered assets over and above all required reserves and
other liabilities in an amount at least equal to that required under
either (1) Sections 48 and 49 if the insurer is to be authorized to
do business on a non-assessable basis, or (2) Section 253 if the
insurer is to be authorized to do business on an assessable basis.

(b)  No insurer commencing business in this State on or after
July 1, 1968, shall issue policies of vehicle liability insurance on
an assessable basis. Insurers writing assessable vehicle liability
policies on July 1, 1968, shall cease issuing such policies after De-
cember 31, 1969.

[(c) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section, any
domestic mutual insurer writing assessable policies which is licensed
only for property insurance and casualty insurance other than
motor vehicle physical damage insurance, motor vehicle liability
insurance, or workmen's compensation, shall not be required to
have any greater amount of assets or surplus than it would be re-
quired to have if it wrote only one kind of insurance, if such in-
surer (1) restricts its operations to the county where its principal
office is located and to the counties in this State which are immedi-
ately adjacent thereto, and is not licensed in any other State, (2)