West Virginia Code 33-10-2 – Jurisdiction, venue and appeal of delinquency proceedings; exclusive remedy
(a) The circuit courts of this state or the judges thereof in vacation are vested with exclusive original jurisdiction of delinquency proceedings under this article, and are authorized to make all necessary and proper orders to carry out the purposes of this article.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 33-10-2
- 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.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Pleadings: Written statements of the parties in a civil case of their positions. In the federal courts, the principal pleadings are the complaint and the answer.
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Venue: The geographical location in which a case is tried.
(b) The venue of delinquency proceedings against a domestic insurer shall be in the circuit court of the county of the insurer's principal place of business. The venue of such proceedings against foreign insurers, alien insurers or domestic insurers in which their principal place of business is outside of the State of West Virginia shall be in the circuit court of Kanawha County.
(c) With the exception of administrative supervision pursuant to article thirty-four of this chapter, delinquency proceedings pursuant to this article shall constitute the sole and exclusive method of liquidating, rehabilitating, reorganizing or conserving an insurer and no court shall entertain a petition for the commencement of such proceedings unless the same has been filed in the name of the state on the relation of the Insurance Commissioner.
(d) An appeal shall lie to the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals from an order granting or refusing rehabilitation, liquidation or conservation and from every other order in delinquency proceedings having the character of a final order as to the particular portion of the proceedings embraced therein. Appeals from orders granting or refusing rehabilitation, liquidation or conservation shall be prosecuted pursuant to section four-d of this article.
(e) At any time after an order is made under section ten or eleven of this article, the commissioner may remove the principal office of the insurer proceeded against to Kanawha County. In the event of such removal, the court wherein the proceeding was originally commenced shall, upon the application of the commissioner, direct its clerk to transmit all the pleadings, motions and other papers filed therein with such clerk to the clerk of the circuit court of Kanawha County. The proceeding shall thereafter be subject to the jurisdiction of the Kanawha County circuit court and conducted in the same manner as though it had been commenced in the Kanawha County circuit court.