Montana Code 33-2-1342. Liquidation orders
33-2-1342. Liquidation orders. (1) An order to liquidate the business of a domestic insurer must appoint the commissioner and the commissioner’s successors in office liquidator and shall direct the liquidator to take possession of the assets of the insurer and to administer them under the general supervision of the court. The liquidator shall be vested by operation of law with the title to all of the property, contracts, and rights of action and all of the books and records of the insurer ordered liquidated, wherever located, as of the entry of the final order of liquidation. The filing or recording of the order with the clerk of the district court and the clerk and recorder of the county in which its principal office or place of business is located or, in the case of real estate, with the clerk and recorder of the county where the property is located shall impart the same notice as a deed, bill of sale, or other evidence of title duly filed or recorded with that clerk and recorder would have imparted.
Terms Used In Montana Code 33-2-1342
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
- Property: means real and personal property. See Montana Code 1-1-205
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
- United States: includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See Montana Code 1-1-201
(2)Upon issuance of the order, the rights and liabilities of any insurer and of its creditors, policyholders, shareholders, members, and all other persons interested in its estate become fixed as of the date of entry of the order of liquidation, except as provided in 33-2-1343 and 33-2-1366.
(3)An order to liquidate the business of an alien insurer domiciled in this state must be in the same terms and have the same legal effect as an order to liquidate a domestic insurer, except that the assets and the business in the United States are the only assets and business included in the order.
(4)At the time of petitioning for an order of liquidation or at any time after petitioning, the commissioner, after making appropriate findings of an insurer’s insolvency, may petition the court for a judicial declaration of insolvency. After providing notice and hearing as it considers proper, the court may make the declaration.
(5)Any order issued under this section must require accounting to the court by the liquidator. Accountings must be at intervals as the court specifies in its order.
(6)(a) Within 5 days after the initiation of an appeal of an order of liquidation that has not been stayed, the commissioner shall present for the court’s approval a plan for the continued performance of the defendant company’s policy claims obligations, including the duty to defend insureds under liability insurance policies, during the pendency of an appeal. The plan must provide for the continued performance and payment of policy claims obligations in the normal course of events, notwithstanding the grounds alleged in support of the order of liquidation, including the ground of insolvency. In the event that the defendant company’s financial condition will not, in the judgment of the commissioner, support the full performance of all policy claims obligations during the appeal pendency period, the plan may prefer the claims of certain policyholders and claimants over creditors and interested parties, as well as other policyholders and claimants, as the commissioner finds to be fair and equitable, considering the relative circumstances of the policyholders and claimants. The court shall examine the plan submitted by the commissioner, and if it finds the plan to be in the best interests of the parties, the court shall approve the plan. An action does not lie against the commissioner or any of the commissioner’s deputies, agents, clerks, assistants, or attorneys by any party based on preference in an appeal pendency plan approved by the court.
(b)The appeal pendency plan may not supersede or affect the obligations of any insurance guaranty association.
(c)A plan must provide for equitable adjustments to be made by the liquidator to any distributions of assets to guaranty associations, in the event that the liquidator pays claims from assets of the estate, which would otherwise be the obligations of any particular guaranty association but for the appeal of the order of liquidation, so that all guaranty associations equally benefit on a pro rata basis from the assets of the estate. If an order of liquidation is set aside upon any appeal, the company may not be released from delinquency proceedings unless all funds advanced by any guaranty association, including reasonable administrative expenses that relate to obligations of the company, have been repaid in full, together with interest at the judgment rate of interest, or unless an arrangement for repayment has been made with the consent of all applicable guaranty associations.