단체보험계약의 문제점과 개선방안에 관한 연구

Abstract

ABSTRACT A study on the problems and improvements of group insurance contract

Im, Seung-gyu Advisor : Prof., Kim jae-hyoung, Ph. D. Department of Law Graduate School of Chosun University

The provisions of Commercial Code related to a group insurance contract prior to the amendment of the Commercial Code does not have provisions on the concept of the group insurance and requirements for the establishment or effect, but have provisions considering the practical convenience of the group insurance, which issues an insurance policy only for the purpose and policyholder, exempting the written consent of the insured, required by the other's life insurance contract. As a result, in the academia and the legal circle, there have been various discussions on group insurance contract, and the issues in the discussions can be said broadly in two ways: First, whether the provision of exempting other's written consent in the other's death insurance contract is appropriate. Second, whether an organization, which is a policyholder, can designate itself as a beneficiary of an insurance and receive the insurance money, and in other words, who should be considered the final attributed subject of the group insurance. Regarding the first issue, Constitutional Court Daejeon High Court decided its constitutionality by a majority opinion for a case of request to rule on its constitutionality; Regarding the second issue, in the revised Commercial Code on March 12, 2015 established the following article, “When a policyholder designates the insured or one who is not its inheritor as an insurance beneficiary, unless articles of association implicitly specify, a written consent of the insured should be received.” However, although the Commercial Code has been revised, regarding the group insurance contract, controversy still remains due to the ambiguity of legal provisions. First, with the amendment of the Commercial Code, what the contents of the articles of association are and whether the insured, the members of the group, knows the contents became very important, but it is very difficult for employees, the members of the group to know the contents of the articles of association in reality, and even if they know the contents, it is not easy for them to refuse to agree. Second, if there are no explicit contents about the designation of an insurance beneficiary in the articles of association, themselves, the insurance contract itself becomes nullified when the policyholder is designated as an insurance beneficiary, and an insurance accident cannot be covered. Third, since there is no restriction of the range of the use of a group insurance, there is a problem that it is very likely that a dispute over the reception of the group insurance may continue to occur. Regarding this, in entering into a group insurance contract, the insurer should be obliged to explain and notify the conclusion and the contents of the contract to the insured as well as the policyholder, and since a group insurance contract, by nature, aims at the promotion of corporate welfare, the purpose of the use of the group insurance should be limited to employees, the members of the group and the bereaved. In addition to these problems, since the group insurance contract allows the policyholder to designate itself without a written consent of the insured if it is specifically set in the articles of association without distinguishing disasters at work from accidents other than incidents at work, regarding the insurance accident, so there are incessant disputes over the reception of the group insurance, if any incidence other than a disaster at work occurs. Also, if the premium of group insurance contract is jointly borne by a group and the members of the group, there is no specific applicable provision related to the rights of the members of the group concerning the reception and use of the insurance, so it would be very vulnerable for the protection of the rights of the members of the group. Therefore, the above two issues should be improved legislatively.