515.48 Kinds of insurance.

Any company organized under this chapter or authorized to do business in this state may:

1. a. Insure dwelling houses, stores and all kinds of buildings and household furniture, and other property against direct or indirect or consequential loss or damage, including loss of use or occupancy and the depreciation of property lost or damaged by fire, smoke, smudge, lightning and other electrical disturbances, collision, falls, wind, tornado, cyclone, volcanic eruptions, earthquake, hail, frost, snow, sleet, ice, weather or climatic conditions, including excess or deficiency of moisture, flood, rain, or drought, rising of the waters of the ocean or its tributaries, bombardment invasion, insurrection, riot, strikes, labor disturbances, sabotage, civil war or commotion, military or usurped power, any order of a civil authority made to prevent the spread of a conflagration, epidemic or catastrophe, vandalism or malicious mischief, and by explosion whether fire ensues or not, except explosion on risks specified in subsection 6, provided, however, that there may be insured hereunder the following:

(1) Explosion of pressure vessels, not including steam boilers of more than fifteen pounds pressure, in buildings designed and used solely for residential purposes by not more than four families.

(2) Explosion of any kind originating outside of the insured building or outside of the building containing the property insured.

(3) Explosion of pressure vessels which do not contain steam or which are not operated with steam coils or steam jackets.

(4) Loss or damage by insects or disease to farm crops or products, and loss of rental value of land used in producing such crops or products.

(5) Accidental injury to sprinklers, pumps, water pipes, elevator tanks and cylinders, steam pipes and radiators, plumbing and its fixtures, ventilating, refrigerating, heating, lighting, or cooking apparatus, or their connections, or conduits or containers of any gas, fluid, or other substance.

(6) Loss or damage to property of the insured caused by the breakage or leakage or by water, hail, rain, sleet, or snow seeping or entering through water pipes, leaks, or openings in buildings.

(7) Loss of and damage to glass, including lettering and ornamentation thereon, and against loss or damage caused by the breakage of glass.

(8) Loss or damage caused by railroad equipment, motor vehicles, airplanes, seaplanes, dirigibles, or other aircraft.

(9) Risks under a multiple peril nonassessable policy reasonably related to the ownership, use or occupancy of a private dwelling or dwellings.

b. Loss by depreciation as herein referred to may include the cost of repair and replacement.

2. Insure the fidelity of persons holding places of private or public trust, or execute any bond or other obligation whenever the performance or refraining from any contract, act, duty or obligation is required or permitted by law to be made, given, or filed, including all bonds in criminal causes, and insure the maker, drawer, drawee, or endorser of checks, drafts, bills of exchange, or other commercial paper against loss by reason of any alteration of such instruments.

3. Insure the safekeeping of books, papers, moneys, stocks, bonds and all kinds of personal property from loss, damage or destruction from any cause, and receive them on deposit.

4. Insure against loss or damage by theft, injury, sickness, or death of animals and to furnish veterinary service.

5. a. Insure any person, the person’s family or dependents, against bodily injury or death by accident, or against disability on account of sickness, or accident, including the granting of hospital, medical, surgical and sick care benefits, but such benefits shall not include the furnishing or replacing in kind of whole human blood or blood products of any kind; however, this provision shall not prohibit payments of indemnity for human blood or blood products. An insurer may contract with health care services providers and offer different levels of benefits to policyholders based upon the provider contracts.

b. Insure against legal liability, and against loss, damage, or expense incident to a claim of such liability, arising out of the death or injury of any person, or arising out of injury to the economic interests of any person as the result of error or negligence in rendering expert, fiduciary or professional service.

c. Insure against loss or damage to property caused by the accidental discharge or leakage of water from automatic sprinkler system and against loss or damage by water or other fluid or substance to any property resulting from the breakage or leakage of other apparatus or of water pipes or other conduits or containers or resulting from casual water entering into cracks or openings in buildings or by seepage through building walls, but not including loss or damage resulting from flood; and including insurance against accidental injury of such sprinklers, pumps, apparatus, conduits or containers.

d. Insure against loss in consequence of accidents or casualties of any kind to employees, including workers’ compensation, or to persons or property resulting from any act of an employee, or any accident or casualty to person or property, or both, occurring in or connected with the transaction of insured’s business, or from the operation of any machinery connected therewith; or to persons or property for which loss the insured is legally liable including an obligation of the insurer to pay medical, hospital, surgical, funeral or other benefits irrespective of legal liability of insured.

e. Insure against liability for loss or expense arising or resulting from accidents occurring by reason of the ownership, maintenance, or use of automobiles or other conveyances including aircraft, resulting in personal injuries or death, or damage to property belonging to others, or both, and for damages to assured’s own automobile or aircraft when sustained through collision with another object, and insure the assured’s own automobile or aircraft against loss or damage, including the loss of use thereof, by fire, lightning, windstorm, tornado, cyclone, hail, burglary or theft, vandalism, malicious mischief, or the wrongful conversion, disposal, or concealment thereof, or any one or more of such hazards, whether said automobile or aircraft is held under conditional sale, contract, or subject to chattel mortgages.

f. Insure against loss of or damage to any property of the insured resulting from collision of any object with such property.

6. Insure against loss or injury to person or property, or both, and against loss of rents or use of buildings, and other property growing out of explosion or rupture of boilers, pipes, flywheels, engines, pressure containers, machinery, and similar apparatus of any kind including equipment used for creating, transmitting, or applying power, light, heat, steam, air conditioning or refrigeration.

7. Insure against loss or damage resulting from burglary or robbery, or attempt thereat, or larceny.

8. Insure or guarantee and indemnify merchants, traders, and those engaged in business and giving credit from loss and damage by reason of giving and extending credit to their customers and those dealing with them, which business shall be known as credit insurance.

a. Such insurance may cover losses, less a deduction of an agreed percentage, not to exceed ten percent, representing anticipated profits, and a further deduction not to exceed thirty-three and one-third percent, on losses on credits extended to risks who have inferior ratings, and less an agreed deduction for normal loss.

b. Such coinsurance percentages shall be deducted in advance of the agreed normal loss from the gross covered loss sustained by the insured.

9. Insure vessels, boats, cargoes, goods, merchandise, freights, specie, bullion, jewelry, jewels, profits, commissions, bank notes, bills of exchange, and other evidence of debt, bottomry, and respondentia interest and every insurance appertaining to or connected with any or all risks or perils of navigation, transit, or transportation, including war risks, on or under any seas or other waters, on land or in the air, or while being assembled, packed, crated, baled, compressed or similarly prepared for shipment or while awaiting the same or during any delays, storage, transshipment, or reshipment, incident thereto, including marine builder’s risks; and for loss or damage for which the insured is legally liable to persons or property in connection with or appertaining to marine, inland marine, transit, or transportation insurance, including liability for loss of or damage arising out of or in connection with the construction, repair, maintenance, storage or use of the subject matter of such insurance; and insure against loss or damage to silverware, musical instruments, furs, garments, fine arts, precious stones, jewels, jewelry, gold, silver, and other precious metals or valuable items whether used in business, transportation, trade or otherwise; and insure automobiles, airplanes, seaplanes, dirigibles or other aircraft, whether stationary or being operated under their own power, which include all or any of the hazards of fire, explosion, transportation, collision, loss by legal liability for damage to property resulting from the maintenance and use of automobiles, airplanes, seaplanes, dirigibles, or other aircraft, and loss by burglary or theft, vandalism, malicious mischief, or the wrongful conversion, disposal or concealment of automobiles whether held under conditional sale, contract, or subject to chattel mortgage, or any one or more of such hazards, including insurance against loss by reason of bodily injury to the person including medical, hospital and surgical expense irrespective of legal liability of insured.

10. Insure any additional risk not specifically included within any of the foregoing classes, which is a proper subject for insurance, is not prohibited by law or contrary to sound public policy, and which, after public notice and hearing, is specifically approved by the commissioner of insurance, except title insurance or insurance against loss or damage by reason of defective title, encumbrances or otherwise. When such additional kind of insurance is approved by the commissioner, the commissioner shall designate within which classification of risks provided for in section 515.49 it shall fall.

[C73, §1132; C97, §1709; S13, §1709; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §8940; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §515.48]

85 Acts, ch 239, §6; 2012 Acts, ch 1023, §157; 2016 Acts, ch 1073, §148; 2017 Acts, ch 54, §61

Referred to in §321.1, 432.1, 432A.1, 508C.3, 517.1, 535.8, 811.3

Action on liability policy, chapter 516