Senate Bill No. 512
(By Senator Hunter)
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[Introduced February 7, 2006; referred to the Committee
on Banking and Insurance; and then to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §33-4-21, relating to
prohibiting insurers offering liability coverage from denying,
refusing to renew or imposing an increased premium for
coverage because the person to be covered is a dog owner and
owns a particular breed of dog; and providing exceptions.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §33-4-21, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 4. GENERAL PROVISIONS.
§33-4-21. Denial of liability coverage based on dog ownership.
(a) No insurer authorized to write liability coverage may
deny, refuse to renew or impose an increased premium for, coverage under a liability insurance policy because the person to be covered
is a dog owner and owns a particular breed of dog.
(b) (1) An insurer authorized to write liability insurance may
deny, refuse to renew or impose an increased premium for, coverage
under a liability insurance policy because the person to be covered
is a dog owner only if the dog owner knows that his or her dog has
been used in the commission of a crime or that his or her dog
previously injured a person, domestic animal or property.
(2) An insurer may not deny coverage, refuse to renew or
impose an increased premium for coverage under this subsection if
the dog is used by a law-enforcement agency and the dog injures a
crime suspect while the dog is performing law enforcement
functions.
(c) This section applies to insurance policies that are issued
or renewed on or after the effective date of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit insurers
offering liability coverage from denying, refusing to renew or
imposing an increased premium for coverage because the person to be
covered is a dog owner and owns a particular breed of dog.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.