Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 38 > Chapter 77 > Article 1 - Purposes and Definitions

• Automobile insurance: means automobile bodily injury and property damage liability insurance, including medical payments and uninsured motorist coverage, and automobile physical damage insurance such as automobile comprehensive physical damage, collision, fire, theft, combined additional coverage, and similar automobile physical damage insurance and economic loss benefits as provided by this chapter written or offered by automobile insurers. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Bodily injury: includes death resulting therefrom. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Damages: includes both actual and punitive damages. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Department: means the Department of Insurance of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Director: means the person who is appointed by the Governor upon the advice and consent of the Senate and who is responsible for the operation and management of the department. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• Individual private passenger automobile: means the following types of motor vehicles owned by or leased under a long-term contract by an individual or individuals:
  
  (i) motor vehicles of the private passenger type or station wagon type;
  
  (ii) panel trucks, delivery sedans, vehicles with a pickup body, vans, or similar motor vehicles designed for use on streets and highways and so licensed;
  
  (iii) motor homes, so long as the motor vehicles described in (ii) and (iii) are not used in the occupation, profession, or business of the insured other than farming and ranching; and
  
  (iv) motorcycles. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• insurance: includes annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Insurance-support organization: means any person who regularly engages, in whole or in part, in the practice of assembling or collecting information about natural persons for the primary purpose of providing the information to an insurer or agent for insurance transactions, including (i) the furnishing of consumer reports or investigative consumer reports to an insurer or agent for use in connection with an insurance transaction or (ii) the collection of personal information from insurers, agents, or other insurance-support organizations for the purpose of detecting or preventing fraud, material misrepresentation, or material nondisclosure in connection with insurance underwriting or insurance claim activity. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Insured: means the named insured and, while resident of the same household, the spouse of any named insured and relatives of either, while in a motor vehicle or otherwise, and any person who uses with the consent, expressed or implied, of the named insured the motor vehicle to which the policy applies and a guest in the motor vehicle to which the policy applies or the personal representative of any of the above. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Insurer: includes a corporation, fraternal organization, burial association, other association, partnership, society, order, individual, or aggregation of individuals engaging or proposing or attempting to engage as principals in any kind of insurance or surety business, including the exchanging of reciprocal or interinsurance contracts between individuals, partnerships, and corporations. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Motor vehicle: means every self-propelled vehicle which is designed for use upon a highway, including trailers and semitrailers designed for use with these vehicles but excepting traction engines, road rollers, farm trailers, tractor cranes, power shovels and well-drillers, and every vehicle which is propelled by electric power obtained from overhead wires but not operated upon rails. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means a corporation, agency, partnership, association, voluntary organization, individual, or another entity, organization, or aggregation of individuals. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• policy: means a policy or contract for bodily injury or property damage liability insurance issued or delivered in this State covering liability arising from the ownership, maintenance, or use of any motor vehicle, insuring as the named insured one individual or husband and wife who are residents of the same household, and under which the insured vehicle designated in the policy is either:
  
  (a) a motor vehicle of a private passenger, station wagon, or motorcycle type that is not used commercially, rented to others, or used as a public or livery conveyance where the terms "public or livery conveyance" do not include car pools, or
  
  (b) any other four-wheel motor vehicle which is not used in the occupation, profession, or business, other than farming, of the insured, or as a public or livery conveyance, or rented to others. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Precedent: A court decision in an earlier case with facts and law similar to a dispute currently before a court. Precedent will ordinarily govern the decision of a later similar case, unless a party can show that it was wrongly decided or that it differed in some significant way.
• Premium: means payment given in consideration of a contract of insurance. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Reduction in coverage: means a change made by the insurer which results in a removal of coverage, diminution in scope or less coverage, or the addition of an exclusion. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Underinsured motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle as defined in item (9) as to which there is bodily injury liability insurance or a bond applicable at the time of the accident in an amount of at least that specified in § 38-77-140 and the amount of the insurance or bond is less than the amount of the insureds' damages. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30
• Uninsured motor vehicle: means a motor vehicle as defined in item (9) as to which:
  
  (a) there is not bodily injury liability insurance and property damage liability insurance both at least in the amounts specified in § 38-77-140; or
  
  (b) there is nominally that insurance, but the insurer writing the same successfully denies coverage thereunder; or
  
  (c) there was that insurance, but the insurer who wrote the same is declared insolvent, or is in delinquency proceedings, suspension, or receivership, or is proven unable fully to respond to a judgment; and
  
  (d) there is no bond or deposit of cash or securities in lieu of the bodily injury and property damage liability insurance;
  
  (e) the owner of the motor vehicle has not qualified as a self-insurer in accordance with the applicable provisions of law. See South Carolina Code 38-77-30