Q: I recently canceled my motorcycle insurance, which I had since 1991, because I'd sold my bike. My insurer - Carr's Cycle Insurance; parent company, Progressive Casualty Insurance Co. - charged me $100 to cancel my policy "for paperwork." How can they justify this preposterous charge? I have never made a claim nor have I ever had a late payment. Is this legal? Also, is there an insurance watchdog group that I can make a complaint to. Insurers can legally levy
fee for canceling policyThe charge is legal, considered reasonable and was approved by his office, said state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Metcalf.
Insurers are allowed to charge that fee because the administrative costs for handling a policy is generally amortized over the life of the policy," he said.
If such a fee isn't imposed on people who cancel short of a policy's full term, then the costs end up being borne by all remaining customers, Metcalf said.
Insurers must get approval for such charges, which can be either a flat or prorated fee.
In your case, the charge "was viewed by the division as fairly representative of the administrative costs involved in processing and servicing a policy," he said.
Q: "I was at a street sale in Canby, Ore., recently when I bought a print. When I took it out of its frame, I found it was the inside of a Christmas card issued by the Star-Bulletin in 1950. The print, "Meleana," was signed by John M. Kelly. Kelly said he was "so impressed by the characteristic Chinese oval-shaped head and long graceful neck of this Honolulu girl that he asked her to pose. She took the pose with the natural ease typical of her Hawaiian and Chinese ancestors." Do you know the name of the model and anything about the artist and the print?Kelly died Sept. 9, 1962, at the age of 84. At the time of his death, the Star-Bulletin wrote, "Hawaii yesterday lost the artist who probably did more than any other man to bring to the world the Islands' Polynesian and Oriental faces, moods and characters." He was best known for his etchings and color engravings.
His son, John M. Kelly Jr., didn't immediately have information but said his daughter, Kathleen, has been going through "hundreds and hundreds" of her grandfather's prints for several years. The idea is to "donate all the basic prints to the Academy of Arts and the University of Hawaii, his son, now 77, said. The family will retain access for reproductions.
"When it comes time, we will sell them and the entire income will be donated to the Hawaiian people for further study of their culture and heritage," Kelly said. "It will bring back to full circle the beauty and inspiration that Hawaiians gave to my parents."
Most of John Kelly Sr.'s main prints have already been donated to the Academy of Arts.
Kelly's parents came to Hawaii in 1923, "just for one year," but fell in love with the islands and stayed. His mother, Kate Kelly, was a sculptress and well regarded in her own right, while Kelly Jr. is well known as an environmental activist, most notably as a founder of Save Our Surf.
You may write him at 4117 Black Point Road, Honolulu 96816.
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