(a) All state licenses issued under this chapter shall expire ninety days from the date thereof or on the termination date designated in the original application, whichever occurs first. Each state license upon expiration, or voluntary surrender prior to expiration, shall be returned to the Commissioner of Consumer Protection who shall cancel the same, endorse the date of delivery and cancellation thereon and place the same on file. The commissioner shall then hold the special deposit of each such licensee for a period of sixty days and, after satisfying all claims made upon the same under this section, shall return such deposit or such portion of the same, if any, as may remain in the commissioner's hands to the licensee depositing it, or as directed by the licensee in the original application. Each deposit made with the commissioner shall be subject, as long as it remains in the commissioner's hands, to attachment or execution on behalf of creditors or consumers whose claims may arise in connection with business done under the authorized sale. Said commissioner may also be held to answer as garnishee under process of foreign attachment, where such process is used, in any civil action brought against any licensee. The commissioner shall pay over, under order of court or upon execution of a judgment, such sum of money as the commissioner may be chargeable with upon the commissioner's disclosure or otherwise. Such deposit shall not be paid over by said commissioner on garnishee process or to such licensee until the expiration of the sixty-day period specified in this section. Such deposit shall also be subject to the payment of any fine or penalty imposed on the licensee for violation of any provision of this chapter, provided written notice of the name of such licensee and of the amount of such fine or penalty shall be given during such period to the commissioner by the clerk of the court in which such fine or penalty was imposed.

(b) Whenever any state license, issued under the provisions of section 21-35b has been lost or destroyed, so that such license cannot, after the expiration of the term thereof, be returned or surrendered under the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, the licensee may file an affidavit with the Commissioner of Consumer Protection describing such license with sufficient particularity to identify the same and the claimant thereunder, and showing such loss or destruction; and the commissioner, upon such proof of loss and identity as is satisfactory to him, may accept such affidavit in lieu of the return or surrender of such license, and such licensee shall have the same right to the return of the special deposit made by him as though he had returned or surrendered his license.

(P.A. 76-281, S. 3; P.A. 83-243, S. 2; P.A. 91-163, S. 3; June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6, S. 146(c); P.A. 04-189, S. 1; P.A. 06-196, S. 253.)

History: P.A. 83-243 amended section to permit attachment or execution in behalf of consumers and to require commissioner to pay over upon execution of a judgment; P.A. 91-163 amended Subsec. (a) to replace provision re three-month expiration with ninety-day expiration and to delete provision re sixty-day extension; June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6 replaced Commissioner of Consumer Protection with Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Protection, effective July 1, 2004; P.A. 04-189 repealed Sec. 146 of June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6, thereby reversing the merger of the Departments of Agriculture and Consumer Protection, effective June 1, 2004; P.A. 06-196 made technical changes in Subsec. (a), effective June 7, 2006.