O.C.G.A.
O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 33-23-41 (2019)

Liability and penalties for unauthorized acts

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)
Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.
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Any person who in this state acts, purports to act, or holds himself or herself out as an agent, limited subagent, counselor, or adjuster or as an employee of an agent, limited subagent, counselor, or adjuster of or for an insurer that has not obtained from the Commissioner a certificate of authority then in effect to do business in this state as required by this article or who has not obtained a certificate of authority as required by this article and any person who in this state collects or forwards any premium or portion of the premium for or to the insurer shall pay a sum equal to the state, county, and municipal taxes and license fees required to be paid by the insurance companies legally doing business in this state. It is the Commissioner’s duty to report violators of this Code section to the district attorney for the county in which the violations occurred. Violators of this Code section shall also be personally liable to the same extent as the insurer upon every contract of insurance made by the insurer with reference to a risk having a situs in this state, if the violator participated in the solicitation, negotiation, or making of the contract or in any endorsement to the contract, in any modification of the contract, or in the collection or forwarding of any premium or portion of the premium relating to such contract. This Code section shall have no application to a contract of insurance entered into in accordance with Chapter 5 of this title.

History

Code 1981, § 33-23-41, enacted by Ga. L. 1992, p. 2830, § 1; Ga. L. 2001, p. 925, § 1; Ga. L. 2008, p. 1076, § 20/SB 113; Ga. L. 2019, p. 386, § 18/SB 133.

The 2019 amendment, effective July 1, 2019, substituted ‘‘this article’’ for ‘‘this title’’ in the middle of the first sentence.

Annotations

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Editor’s notes. - In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, decisions under Ga. L. 1960, pp. 289, 451 are included in the annotations for this Code section.

Agent for unauthorized insurer is liable for penalty for refusal to pay claim. - Agent’s liability is the same as the insurer’s, and the liability for attorney’s fees and damages for refusal to pay a

claim attaches to the agent as it does to the insurer. Reeves v. South Am. Managers, Inc., 110 Ga. App. 49, 137 S.E.2d 700 (1964), aff ’d, 220 Ga. 493, 140 S.E.2d 201 (1965) (decided under Ga. L. 1960, pp. 289, 451). State Board of Workers’ Compensation lacks authority to adjudicate issue of insurance agent’s liability. - Even if a particular insurance agent may be held liable under O.C.G.A. § 33-23-41 or some other provision of the Georgia Insurance Code, it does not follow that the State Board of Workers’ Compensation is the proper forum for adjudicating the issue; thus, contrary to the argument of an

employee who filed a claim for workers’ compensation, the State Board was not authorized to hold an insurance agent who sold the employer an accident group policy instead of a workers’ compensation policy personally liable under O.C.G.A. § 33-23-41 for compensating the employee. Gulf States Underwriters of La., Inc. v. Bennett, 260 Ga. App. 699, 580 S.E.2d 550 (2003). Cited in Kelley v. Montgomery, 108 Ga. App. 271, 132 S.E.2d 857 (1963); Chatham County Hosp. Auth. v. John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co., 325 F. Supp. 614 (S.D. Ga. 1971).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Editor’s notes. - In light of the similarity of the statutory provisions, opinions under former Code 1933, § 56-506 are included in the annotations for this Code section. Agent prohibited from representing insurer without certificate of authority. - This section clearly prohibits an agent from representing any insurance

company of this or any other state or foreign government until the company fully complies with the insurance laws of this state and receives from the Insurance Commissioner a proper certificate of authority to do business herein. 1945-47 Op. Att’y Gen. p. 361 (decided under former Code 1933, § 56-506).

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. - 43 Am. Jur. 2d, Insurance, § 109 et seq. C.J.S. - 44 C.J.S., Insurance, § 70.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 2 cases, 1998–2003 · leading case: Gulf States Underwriters of Louisiana, Inc. v. Bennett, 580 S.E.2d 550 (Ga. Ct. App. 2003).
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Gulf States Underwriters of Louisiana, Inc. v. Bennett, 580 S.E.2d 550 (Ga. Ct. App. 2003). · cites it 4× “According to Bennett, Thomas is liable under OCGA § 33-23-41, which imposes personal liability on an insurance agent in limited circumstances.”
Broughton v. Florida Int'l Underwriters, Inc., 139 F.3d 861 (11th Cir. 1998). “Although section 33-4-6 provides for the recovery of the statutory penalty and attorney’s fees against only the insurer, Broughton contends that Ga. Code Ann. § 33-23-41 brings FIU within the section 33-4-6 liability provisions.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.