17:27A-10.1. Right to recovery for receiver

9. a. If an order for rehabilitation or liquidation of a domestic insurer has been entered, the receiver appointed under that order shall have a right to recover on behalf of the insurer:

(1) from any parent corporation or holding company or person or affiliate who otherwise controlled the insurer, the amount of distributions (other than distributions of shares of the same class of stock) paid by the insurer on its capital stock; or

(2) any payment in the form of a bonus, termination settlement or extraordinary lump sum salary adjustment made by the insurer or its subsidiaries to a director, officer or employee, if the distribution or payment pursuant to (1) or (2) is made at any time during the 12 months preceding the filing of the petition for liquidation, conservation or rehabilitation, as the case may be, subject to the limitations of subsections b., c. and d. of this section.

b. No such distribution shall be recoverable if the parent or affiliate shows that, when paid, the distribution was lawful and reasonable, and that the insurer did not know and could not reasonably have known that the distribution might adversely affect the ability of the insurer to fulfill its contractual obligations.

c. Any person who was a parent corporation or holding company or a person who otherwise controlled the insurer or affiliate at the time such distributions were paid shall be liable up to the amount of the distributions or payments defined under subsection a. which that person received. Any person who otherwise controlled the insurer at the time such distributions were declared shall be liable up to the amount of distributions he would have received if they had been paid immediately. If two or more persons are liable with respect to the same distributions, they shall be jointly and severally liable.

d. In the case of an insurer being liquidated, the maximum amount recoverable under this section shall be the amount, in excess of all other available assets of the insurer, necessary to pay its contractual obligations and to reimburse any guaranty funds. In the case of an insurer being rehabilitated, the maximum amount recoverable shall be the full amount of any distributions which a receiver has a right to recover under this section.

e. To the extent that any person liable under subsection c. of this section is insolvent or otherwise fails to pay claims due from it pursuant to that subsection, its parent corporation or holding company or person who otherwise controlled it at the time the distribution was paid, shall be jointly and severally liable for any resulting deficiency in the amount recovered from such parent corporation or holding company or person who otherwise controlled it.

L.1993,c.241,s.9.