§9.1.3

Empty Pre-Printed Grids

An empty grid—preserve the rows or skip the table?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §9.1.3 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

A printed grid with no values entered MUST be rendered as a table, with its headers and every printed empty row as a row of empty cells. It MUST NOT be skipped, and MUST NOT be reduced to its headers alone.

When it applies

A blank form table — full ruled structure, headers printed, no values entered anywhere.

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output

| Name | Date | Amount | Signature |
|      |      |        |           |
|      |      |        |           |

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

Requirements

The grid MUST be rendered as a table. The headers are the content: they are what the form asks for.
Every printed empty row MUST be rendered, as empty cells. An empty cell is a cell.
The headers MUST NOT be emitted on their own. A headers-only output is the degenerate shape ruled out in Header-Only Tables (§9.1.4); here the printed empty rows are the body, so keeping them avoids that shape.
The table MUST NOT be skipped because it has no data. A page with a printed form on it is not blank.
A long run of identical empty rows — dozens of them — MUST be rendered in full, never trimmed to a representative few.

✅ SampleThe rule applies

An NAIC rate-filing exhibit where every row after the first is a blank template row…`xx`

An NAIC rate-filing exhibit where every row after the first is a blank template row awaiting entry — the structure is the content. Each blank row still prints XX and the computed 0.00% / 0.00 subtotals, and all nine are kept. Each column header is one label wrapped over many lines, so its lines are joined into one cell, including the words broken mid-word by the narrow columns.

Source page

Expected output

Data Item for Specified Rating Pool
			For the rate period included in the immediately prior rate adjustment filing (or initial form & rate filing)
1. Market Segment	2. Description of rating pool within the market segment		18. Period assumed - beginning date (MM/DD/YY)	19. Period assumed - ending date (MM/DD/YY)	20. Average annual claim trend assumed	21.1 Regulatory authority licenses and fees, including New York State 332 assessment as a % of gross premium	21.2 Administrative expenses for activities that improve health care quality as defined in the NAIC Annual Statement Supplement Health Care Exhibit - as a % of gross premium	21.3 Commissions and broker fees - as a % of gross premium	21.4 Premium Taxes - as a % of gross premium	21.5 Other state and federal taxes and assessments (other than income taxes and assessments) - as a % of gross premium	21.6 Other administrative expenses - as a % of gross premium	21.7 Subtotal columns 21.1 through 21.6	22. After tax underwriting margin (profit/contribution to surplus) - as a % of gross premium	23. State income tax component - as a % of gross premium	23.1 State income tax rate assumed (eg 3%)	24. Federal income tax component - as a % of gross premium	24.1 Federal income tax rate assumed (eg 30%)	25. Reduction for assumed net investment income - as a % of gross premium (enter as a negative value)	26. Subtotal lines 21.7 + 22 + 23 + 24 + 25	27.1 Regulatory authority licenses and fees, including New York State 332 assessment expenses - $pmpm	27.2 Administrative expenses for activities that improve health care quality as defined in the NAIC Annual Statement Supplement Health Care Exhibit - as $pmpm	27.3 Commissions and broker fees - as $pmpm	27.4 Premium Taxes - as $pmpm	27.5 Other state and federal taxes and assessments (other than income taxes and assessments) - as $pmpm	27.6 Other administrative expenses - as $pmpm	27.7 Subtotal lines 27.1 through 27.6	28. After tax underwriting margin (profit/contribution to surplus) - as $pmpm	29. State income tax component - as $pmpm	30. Federal income tax component - as $pmpm	31. Reduction for assumed net investment income - as $pmpm (enter as a negative value)	32. Subtotal columns 27.7 through 31
HNY-IND	Healthy NY	XX	1/1/2012	12/31/2012	15.2%	0.80%	0.00%	1.54%	2.71%	0.00%	6.16%	11.21%	-1.21%	0.00%	7.10%	0.00%	34.00%	0.00%	10.00%	2.40	0.00	4.62	8.14	0.00	18.46	33.62	(3.64)	0.00	0.00	0.00	29.98
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00
		XX										0.00%							0.00%							0.00					0.00

Why

A reader of a blank form is asking "what fields does this form ask for?", and the structure answers that question completely. Returning nothing gives nothing for a page that is manifestly not blank.

The row count is the awkward part: reproducing forty empty rows is faithful and repetitive, reproducing one is compact and unfaithful. Faithful wins — trimming cannot be undone downstream, while ignoring extra empty rows can be (never drop).

✅ SampleThe rule applies

a court scheduling order

SCHEDULING AND CUTOFF DATES: three columns, nine rows, every row's description printed and its two date cells empty. The banner above the header row is a title band inside the frame.

Source page

Expected output · excerpt

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that the parties and their respective counsel shall comply with the following schedule, and that Sanctions, including but not limited to those set forth in the Local Court Rules may be imposed for noncompliance.

SCHEDULING AND CUTOFF DATES
DAYS PRIOR TO TRIAL	DATE	DESCRIPTION
		Disclosure of possible primary witnesses
		Disclosure of possible additional witnesses
		Discovery cutoff
		Settlement Conference
		Last day to hear Dispositive Pretrial Motions
		Exchange of Witness and Exhibit Lists
		Joint Statement of the Evidence
		Filing of Trial Briefs
		TRIAL to begin at 9:00 a.m.

…

Look-alike

Two similar pages that call for different decisions. Synthetic, for teaching the boundary.

A header row and nothing under it. Is there a table here?

A stray header line

Duration	Factor

Rates apply from inception.

1 0.94

2 0.91

The convention

Not a table. Find the body or annotate it as text.

A blank pre-printed grid

Name	Date	Amount

The convention

A table. Keep every printed empty row.

Look at the structure. What evidence changes the answer?

Rule id tables-empty-pre-printed-grids · tables forms degenerate