Every insurer shall, before being licensed, appoint in writing the director and his successors in office to be its true and lawful attorney upon whom all legal process in any action or proceeding against it must be served and in this writing shall agree that any lawful process against it which is served upon this attorney is of the same legal force and validity as if served upon the insurer and that the authority continues in force so long as any liability remains outstanding in the State. Copies of the appointment, certified by the director, are sufficient evidence of the appointment and must be admitted in evidence with the same force and effect as the original might be admitted.
S.C. Code Ann. § 38-5-70
Appointment of director as attorney for service of process
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Garris v. Hanover Insurance (1980)
Most recently applied in White Oak Manor, Inc. v. Lexington Insurance (January 2014)
Former 1976 Code SECTION 38-5-70 [1952 Code SECTION 37-104; 1947 (45) 322; 1962 Code SECTION 37-104] recodified as SECTION 38-5-80 and SECTION 38-5-90 by 1987 Act No. 155, SECTI…
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Carolina Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.