Montana Code Annotated
Part 13. Supervision, Rehabilitation, and Liquidation
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.
(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.
History: En. Sec. 18, Ch. 383, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 51, Ch. 596, L. 1993.

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