PIERRE, SD (KELO) – An exception to South Dakota’s public records law allows the state’s Division of Insurance to keep confidential information provided by insurance companies to the division, according to Supreme Court of South Dakota.
In what recent consensus, the state’s highest court upheld a lower ruling that the Division of Insurance’s proper office denied a public-records request from Jason M. Schupp of Frederick, Maryland. A state law special permission for those records to be kept confidential, wrote Justice Mark Salter.
The same law limits what the insurance company can do with those records: “Under no circumstances can an insurance company disclose a report or any supporting documents to any anyone, other than the directors and officers of the driver’s insurance company or anyone working in. a fixed position for the insured insurance company, without written permission from the director .”
According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, “At its simplest, a captive is a full owner. branches was created to provide insurance to the uninsured parents company (or companies). Captives are a form of personal insurance that is fully owned by the insurer.”
Justice Salter wrote, “Under the opening reading of SDCL 58-46-31’s plain and unambiguous terms, the applicant’s name and address must be filed with the DOI and are confidential. Therefore, the disclosure of the names and addresses contained in a certificate of ownership, to a public person, such as Schupp, is prohibited.