A Mississippi bill that would have established a homeowners insurance policyholder Bill of Rights and eliminated anti-concurrent causation (ACC) exclusions in policies has died in a Senate committee.
As reported last month by NU Online, State Senator David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, said he introduced the measure in response to what he asserted were actions by some insurers after Hurricane Katrina that delayed the state's recovery and damaged both policyholders and the state's economy.
Julie Pulliam, spokesperson for the American Insurance Association (AIA), said Feb. 2 was the deadline for all Mississippi bills to be acted on in committee, and no action was taken on SB 2386, Sen. Baria's bill.
She noted the Senate Insurance Committee held a hearing on the bill last week, and AIA reiterated its opposition to the measure, particularly the elimination of ACC language from policies.
"That would have opened the door to substantial litigation and rolled back years of case law in Mississippi upholding the validity of the ACC clause," Ms. Pulliam said via email. "It certainly would have been a destabilizing development for the property insurance market in the state."
Ms. Pulliam said AIA supports an alternative Bill of Rights now being put in final draft by the state's insurance department.
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