Section 416-A:2 Definitions.
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
I. ""Title insurance'' means insuring, guaranteeing, or indemnifying owners of real property or others interested therein against loss or damage suffered by reason of liens, encumbrances upon, defects in, or the unmarketability of the title to said property.
II. The ""business of title insurance'' means the making or proposing to make, as insurer, guarantor, or surety, or any contract or policy of title insurance; or the transacting or proposing to transact, as insurer, guarantor, or surety, any phase of title insurance, including solicitation, negotiation preliminary to execution, execution of a contract of title insurance, and transacting matters subsequent to the execution of the contract and arising out of it, including reinsurance.
III. ""Title insurance company'' means any domestic company organized under the provisions of this chapter for the purpose of insuring titles to real property; any title insurance company organized under the laws of another state or foreign nation and licensed to insure titles to real estate within this state; and any domestic, foreign, or alien company having the power and authorized to insure titles to real estate within this state and which meets the requirements of this chapter.
IV. ""Applicants for insurance'' shall be deemed to include all those whether or not a prospective insured, who from time to time apply to a title insurance company, or to its agent, for title insurance, and who at the time of such application are not agents for a title insurance company.
V. ""Premium'' for title insurance is the amount charged by a title insurance company, agent for a title insurance company, or either of them, to an insured or an applicant for insurance for the assumption by the title insurance company of the risk created by the issuance of the title insurance policy.
VI. ""Fee'' for title insurance means and includes the premium, abstracting, and/or searching charge, examination charge, and every other charge, exclusive of settlement, closing or escrow charges, whether denominated premium or otherwise, made by a title insurance company, agent of a title insurance company, to an insured or to an applicant for insurance, for any policy or contract for the issuance of title insurance, but the term ""fee'' shall not include any charges paid to and retained by an attorney at law or abstracter acting as an independent contractor whether or not he is acting as an agent of a title insurance company or an approved attorney, or any charges made for special services not constituting title insurance, even though performed in connection with a title insurance policy or contract.
VII. ""Title insurance agent'' means a person authorized by a title insurance company to solicit insurance or to collect premiums, or to issue or countersign policies in its behalf.
VIII. ""Approved attorney'' means an attorney at law, who is not an employee of a title insurance company or of a title insurance agent, upon whose examination of title and report thereon a title insurance company may issue a policy of title insurance.
IX. ""Single insurance risk'' means the insured amount of any policy or contract of title insurance issued by a title insurance company unless 2 or more policies or contracts are simultaneously issued on different estates in identical real property, in which event, it means the sum of the insured amounts of all such policies or contracts. Any such policy or contract that insures a mortgage interest that is excepted in a fee or leasehold policy or contract, and which does not exceed the insured amount of such fee or leasehold policy or contract, shall be excluded in computing the amount of a single insurance risk.
X. ""Net retained liability'' means the total liability retained by a title insurance company under any policy or contract for insurance, or under a single insurance risk as defined in or computed in accordance with paragraph IX of this section, after the purchase of reinsurance.
XI. ""Foreign title insurance company'' means a title insurance company organized under the laws of any other state of the United States.
XII. ""Alien title insurance company'' means any title insurance company incorporated or organized under the laws of any foreign nation, or of any province or territory thereof, not included under the definition of foreign title insurance company.
Source. 1971, 561:1, eff. Sept. 10, 1971.