2019 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 52 - Workers' Compensation
Article 9 - Employers Mutual Company
Section 52-9-5 - Company's board of directors; appointment; powers.
A. The company's board of directors shall consist of the president and eight members appointed or elected as provided in this section.
B. Each director shall hold office until a successor is appointed or elected and begins service on the board.
C. The governor shall appoint, with the consent of the senate, the initial eight directors of the board, and they shall then appoint the president, who shall be the ninth member of the board.
D. After the governor appoints the initial eight directors of the board, those directors shall determine by lot their initial terms, which shall be two directors for two years, three directors for four years and three directors for six years. Thereafter, each director shall be appointed or elected to a six-year term. At the expiration of the terms of the two initial directors whose terms are two years, the governor shall appoint one director and the policyholders shall elect one director for full six-year terms. At the expiration of the terms of the three initial directors whose terms are four years, the governor shall appoint two directors and the policyholders shall elect one director for full six-year terms. At the expiration of the terms of the three initial directors whose terms are six years, the governor shall appoint two directors and the policyholders shall elect one director for full six-year terms. Thereafter, as vacancies arise, directors shall be appointed or elected so that at all times five directors shall be appointed by the governor and three directors shall be elected by the company's policyholders in accordance with provisions determined by the board.
E. The governor shall not remove a director he appoints unless the removal is approved by a two-thirds vote of the members of the senate.
F. At all times, two of the governor's appointees to the board shall be public members who have general expertise in workers' compensation, but they shall not be employed by or represent policyholders of the company. Of the remaining six appointed or elected board members, excluding the company president, three directors shall be managers or represent the management of policyholders of the company and three directors shall be nonmanagement employees or represent the nonmanagement employees of policyholders of the company, subject to the following restrictions:
(1) at least two of the three directors who are managers or represent the management of policyholders of the company shall be from or represent private, for-profit enterprises;
(2) at least five members of the board, including the president, shall be knowledgeable in investments and economics;
(3) no member of the board shall represent or be an employee or member of the board of directors of an insurance company;
(4) no two members of the board shall be employed by or represent the same company or institution;
(5) no more than two members of the board shall be employed by or represent a governmental entity; and
(6) any director who has served a full six-year term shall not be eligible for another term until one year after the end of his term.
The provisions of this subsection that apply to managers or representatives of management and nonmanagement employees or representatives of nonmanagement employees of policyholders shall, in the case of the governor's initial director appointments, apply instead to the management and nonmanagement employees of any employer in the state.
G. The board shall annually elect a chairman from among its members and shall elect those other officers it determines necessary for the performance of its duties.
H. The power to set the policies and procedures for the company is vested in the board. The board may perform all acts necessary or appropriate to exercise that power. The board shall have the same power, authority and jurisdiction as that authorized by law for the governing body of a private insurance carrier. The board shall, consistent with sound underwriting practices, seek to provide priority assistance and competitively priced workers' compensation and occupational disease and disablement insurance to small and medium-sized employers who are good risks for that insurance.
I. Directors' compensation shall be set by the board but shall be limited so that total compensation and reimbursement for expenses incurred as a director, except for the president, do not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for each director annually.
History: Laws 1990 (2nd S.S.), ch. 2, § 125; 1991, ch. 134, § 1.
ANNOTATIONSThe 1991 amendment, effective June 14, 1991, substituted "eight members" for "six members" in Subsection A; substituted "eight directors" for "six directors" and "ninth member" for "seventh member" in Subsection C; in Subsection D, substituted "eight directors" for "six directors" and "three directors" for "two directors" in two places in the first sentence, substituted "three initial directors" for "two initial directors" and "two directors" for "one director" in the fourth sentence, rewrote the fifth sentence which read "At the expiration of the terms of the two initial directors whose terms are six years, the policyholders shall elect two directors for full six-year terms" and substituted "five directors" for "two directors" and "three directors" for "four directors" in the final sentence; deleted former Subsection F, relating to termination of the governor's power to appoint directors; designated former Subsections G to J as Subsections F to I; in Subsection F, rewrote the introductory paragraph, substituted "five members" for "four members" in Paragraph (2) and "two members" for "one member" in Paragraph (5) and deleted "six" preceding "director appointments" in the final sentence of the Subsection; and added the final sentence in Subsection H.
No jurisdiction over claims between insurers. — The workers' compensation administration does not have jurisdiction over a controversy between workers' compensation insurers that has no effect on the rights of the worker. Jones v. Holiday Inn Express, 2014-NMCA-082.
Where worker sustained a back injury; thirteen days before the accident, the employer changed worker's compensation carriers from plaintiff to defendant; unaware of the change, the employer's manager gave notice to plaintiff of worker's claim for benefits; without researching whether the employer was insured through plaintiff, plaintiff accepted the claim and began paying benefits to worker; plaintiff also erred by miscalculating the amount of benefits which gave worker 700 weeks instead of 500 weeks of benefits; when plaintiff discovered the error, plaintiff filed a complaint with the workers' compensation administration requesting that the workers' compensation judge order defendant to pay future benefits to worker and to reimburse the benefits paid by plaintiff, the workers' compensation administration lacked jurisdiction over the controversy because the controversy did not involve or affect worker's claim for compensation. Jones v. Holiday Inn Express, 2014-NMCA-082.
