O'Deane v. C & S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.

                                ENTRY ORDER

                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 89-443

                            NOVEMBER TERM, 1990


Philip O'Deane                    }          APPEALED FROM:
                                  }
                                  }
     v.                           }          Windham Superior Court
                                  }
                                  }
C & S Wholesale Grocers, Inc.,    }
and American Mutual Liability     }          DOCKET NO. S323-86Wmc
Insurance Company                 }

             In the above entitled cause the Clerk will enter:

   Following the appointment of the Massachusetts Insurance Commissioner as
permanent receiver of defendant American Mutual, an insolvent Massachusetts
Insurance Company, the company, pursuant to 8 V.S.A. { 3596, moved to dis-
miss the action brought against it by plaintiff.  The court denied the
motion.

   Section 3596 states in relevant part, "[N]o action . . . against such
insurer [in receivership in a reciprocal state], shall be . . . continued
in the courts of this state . . . ."  Under the circumstances of this case,
the plain meaning of this statute does not give a Vermont court any dis-
cretion to deny a motion to dismiss when an insurer such as American Mutual
is undergoing a proceeding for rehabilitation, reorganization or liquidation
in a qualifying foreign jurisdiction.

     Massachusetts is a "reciprocal state" insofar as relevant to this case
if { 3596 is "in substance and effect . . . in force" in Massachusetts.  8
V.S.A. { 3591.  We hold that Massachusetts Insurers Liquidation Law, 175
M.G.L. {{ 180A-L, is sufficiently similar to Vermont's counterpart, 8 V.S.A.
chapter 101, subchapter 8, in relevant respects to qualify Massachusetts as
a "reciprocal state."  Section 180F of the Massachusetts law provides for
the appointment of an ancillary receiver in Vermont to process Vermont
claims in similar fashion as 8 V.S.A. { 3592 makes provision for appointment
of a referee to process Massachusetts claims in Massachusetts.

   Reversed.




                                   BY THE COURT:



                                   Ernest W. Gibson III, Associate Justice




[ ]  Publish                       John A. Dooley, Associate Justice

[ ]  Do Not Publish
                                   James L. Morse, Associate Justice


                                   Louis P. Peck, Associate Justice (Ret.),
                                   Specially Assigned