Terms Used In South Carolina Code > Title 33 > Chapter 8 > Article 5 - Indemnification

• Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
• Civil forfeiture: The loss of ownership of property used to conduct illegal activity.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
• 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.
• Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
• Department: means the Department of Insurance of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• director: means the Director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance or his designee. See South Carolina Code 38-21-10
• Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
• Domestic insurer: means an insurer incorporated or organized under the laws of this State. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Enterprise risk: means an activity, circumstance, event, or series of events involving one or more affiliates of an insurer that, if not remedied promptly, likely is to have a material adverse effect upon the financial condition or liquidity of the insurer or its insurance holding company system as a whole, including, but not limited to, anything that would cause the insurer's risk-based capital to fall into company action level as provided in § 38-9-330 or would cause the insurer to be in hazardous financial condition as provided in § 38-5-120. See South Carolina Code 38-21-10
• Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. ^{Source: U.S. Courts}
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. ^{Source: OCC}
• group-wide supervisor: means the regulatory official authorized to engage in conducting or coordinating group-wide supervision activities who is determined or acknowledged by the director pursuant to § 38-21-295 to have sufficient significant contacts with the internationally active insurance group. See South Carolina Code 38-21-10
• Indemnification: In general, a collateral contract or assurance under which one person agrees to secure another person against either anticipated financial losses or potential adverse legal consequences. ^{Source: FDIC}
• insurance: includes annuities. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• insurance holding company system: consists of two or more affiliated persons, one or more of which is an insurer. See South Carolina Code 38-21-10
• 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
• internationally active insurance group: means an insurance holding company system that includes an insurer registered pursuant to §§ 38-21-143 through 38-21-240 and meets the following criteria:
  
  (a) premiums written in at least three countries;
  
  (b) the percentage of gross premiums written outside the United States is at least ten percent of the insurance holding company system's total gross written premiums; and
  
  (c) based on a three-year rolling average, the total assets of the insurance holding company system are at least fifty billion dollars or the total gross written premiums of the insurance holding company systems are at least ten billion dollars. See South Carolina Code 38-21-10
• 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.
• Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
• License: means a document issued by the state's director or his designee authorizing a person to act as an insurance producer for the lines of authority specified in the document. See South Carolina Code 38-1-20
• Nolo contendere: No contest-has the same effect as a plea of guilty, as far as the criminal sentence is concerned, but may not be considered as an admission of guilt for any other purpose.
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• 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 an individual, a corporation, a partnership, an association, a joint stock company, a trust, an unincorporated organization, any similar entity, or any combination of the foregoing acting in concert. See South Carolina Code 38-21-10
• Plea: In a criminal case, the defendant's statement pleading "guilty" or "not guilty" in answer to the charges, a declaration made in open court.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Sequester: To separate. Sometimes juries are sequestered from outside influences during their deliberations.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• supervisory college: is a meeting or joint meeting of insurance regulators or supervisors with company officials where the topic of discussion is regulatory oversight of one specific insurance group that is writing significant amounts of insurance in other jurisdictions. See South Carolina Code 38-21-10
• Testify: Answer questions in court.
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.