209 P. 294 | Ariz. | 1922
The Lumbermen’s Indemnity Exchange, a fire insurance company organized and
The only question presented is whether an insurance company applying for a license to do business in this state is liable for the services of an examiner and his assistant in making an investigation or examination of its condition, it being conceded that it must pay the expenses necessarily incurred in such an undertaking’. Appellant contends that the services óf the examiner is just as much a part of such expense as his railroad fare or hotel bills, while appellee claims that they are not, the contention of each being based upon paragraph 3380 of the Revised Statutes of 1913 (Civ. Code), the pertinent parts of which read as follows:
It is apparent from this that the expense of every examination and investigation of an insurance company shall be paid by the company examined, and that the examiner shall neither charge to nor receive from such company any compensation for his services, but shall be allowed only his necessary traveling expenses. The second sentence, however, provides that the services plus the actual traveling- and necessary expenses Qf all others employed in making the examination shall be charged to the company examined, but the latter part of the paragraph provides that payment for all charges to the person conducting the examination shall be made by the state treasurer upon a warrant of the state auditor drawn upon the presentation to the latter of an itemized statement audited by him after approval by the Corporation Commission. A
This view is confirmed by the fact that immediately following the sentence denying the examiner the right to charge the company for his services is one providing specially that the company shall be charged for the services of all others employed in making the examination, thus placing the compensation of the examiners themselves and those employed to assist them upon a different basis, the services of the latter only being made a charge against the company. While, therefore, the compensation of the examiner may be a part of the expense of making an examination of an insurance company where the commission appoints one specially for a particular piece of work, yet the special provision that his services shall not be a charge against the company must prevail, for “where general terms or expressions in one part of a statute are inconsistent with more specific or particular provisions in another part, the particular provisions will be given effect as clearer and more definite expressions of the legislative will.” 36 Cyc. 1130. The statute, excepting the services of the examiner from the expenses of an examination which the insurance company must bear, was evidently drawn upon the theory that under paragraph 3379 of the Revised Statutes of 1913 the Commission would have regularly in its employ salaried persons qualified to perform this service; but the fact that it does not have them, as appellant states in its brief is true,. does not relieve the state from the obligation of paying them when they are employed. Hence the per diem of the examiner has no place in the statement upon the receipt of a certified copy of which the company remits to the Corporation Commission.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed.