On November 25, 2013, the Division of Insurance issued a 46-page decision reversing the Governing Committee’s decision upholding the cancellation of the Calianos Insurance Agency’s exclusive representative producer contract with Safety Insurance and the de-certification of the agency as an assigned risk producer. The Division of Insurance’s decision also questioned CAR’s hearing process and suggested changes where CAR’s hearing procedures involved contract cancellation or producer de-certification.
In an unusual special meeting called for Friday, December 20, 2013, CAR’s Governing Committee met to discuss the DOI decision. After the standard preliminaries, “…the Chairman advised the Committee that Counsel planned to discuss and provide litigation strategy advice to the Committee regarding the Division of Insurance decision entitled ‘Appeal of the Calianos Insurance Agency of a Decision of Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, Docket No. C2012-02‘” and called for a vote to continue the meeting in executive session, where the public would be excluded.
On a roll call vote, as required by the Open Meeting Law, the committee went into executive session with 11 members voting in favor and one member voting against.
After meeting in executive session the CAR Governing Committee did not reconvene in an open meeting. However, on December 26th, CAR announced on its website that “On a unanimous vote, the Governing Committee agreed not to pursue an appeal of the Division of Insurance’s Order on the Calianos Agency’s Appeal of a Decision of Commonwealth Automobile Reinsurers, Docket No. C2012-02.”
What effect, if any, the Division of Insurance’s critique of CAR’s hearing procedures may have in causing procedural changes at CAR remains to be seen. See Agency Checklists’ analysis of the Calianos Case and the DOI’s decision here.
