- 23 -
A&H industry and in the courts. As discussed infra, courts had
held repeatedly before the 1942 Act that the word “reserves” in
the life and A&H industry included unaccrued unpaid losses and,
more importantly, that the meaning of the word did not include
accrued unpaid losses. Whereas respondent asks the Court to
conclude that Congress intended for the word to carry a contrary
meaning prevalent in the P&C insurance industry, we decline to do
so.7 The P&C insurance industry is substantively different from
the industry of life and A&H insurance, and we read nothing in
the 1942 Act or the legislative history thereunder that would
persuade us that Congress meant for the word “reserves” in the
context of life and A&H insurance to have the meaning given to it
by the P&C insurance industry. To be sure, the most logical
conclusion from the fact that Congress used the word in the
relevant parts of the statute in the setting of life and A&H
insurance is that Congress meant for that word to have the
established meaning in the life and A&H industry.
As to the history of the meaning of the word “reserves”, the
first regulatory definition of that word in the setting of life
and A&H insurance is found in Regs. 62, Art. 681 (1921 Act).
7 The P&C meaning of the term “unpaid losses” included
accrued unpaid losses. See, e.g., Pacific Employers Ins. Co. v.
Commissioner, 33 B.T.A. 501, 504 (1935), affd. 89 F.2d 186 (9th
Cir. 1937); Retailers Fire Ins. Co. v. Commissioner, 3 B.T.A 1186
(1926).
Page: Previous 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 NextLast modified: May 25, 2011