2013 South Carolina Code of Laws
Title 38 - Insurance
CHAPTER 27 - INSURERS' REHABILITATION AND LIQUIDATION ACT
SECTION 38-27-400. Powers of liquidator.

(a) The liquidator has the power:

(1) To appoint a special deputy to act for him under this chapter and to determine the special deputy's reasonable compensation. The special deputy has all powers of the liquidator granted by this section. The special deputy serves at the pleasure of the liquidator.

(2) To employ employees and agents, legal counsel, actuaries, accountants, appraisers, consultants, and other personnel he considers necessary to assist in the liquidation.

(3) To fix the reasonable compensation of employees and agents, legal counsel, actuaries, accountants, appraisers, and consultants with the court's approval.

(4) To pay reasonable compensation to persons appointed and to defray from the funds or assets of the insurer all expenses of taking possession of, conserving, conducting, liquidating, disposing of, or otherwise dealing with the business and property of the insurer. In the event that the property of the insurer does not contain sufficient cash or liquid assets to defray the costs incurred, the director may advance the costs so incurred out of any appropriation for the maintenance of the insurance department. Any amounts so advanced for expenses of administration must be repaid to the director for the use of the insurance department out of the first available monies of the insurer.

(5) To hold hearings, to subpoena witnesses to compel their attendance, to administer oaths, to examine any person under oath, and to compel any person to subscribe to his testimony after it has been correctly reduced to writing and, in connection therewith, to require the production of any books, papers, records, or other documents which he considers relevant to the inquiry.

(6) To collect all debts and monies due and claims belonging to the insurer, wherever located, and, for this purpose:

(i) To institute timely action in other jurisdictions in order to forestall garnishment and attachment proceedings against the debts.

(ii) To do other acts necessary or expedient to collect, conserve, or protect its assets or property, including the power to sell, compound, compromise, or assign debts for purposes of collection upon terms and conditions he considers best.

(iii) To pursue any creditor's remedies available to enforce his claims.

(7) To conduct public and private sales of the property of the insurer.

(8) To use assets of the estate of an insurer under a liquidation order to transfer policy obligations to a solvent assuming insurer, if the transfer can be arranged without prejudice to applicable priorities under Section 38-27-610.

(9) To acquire, hypothecate, encumber, lease, improve, sell, transfer, abandon, or otherwise dispose of or deal with any property of the insurer at its market value or upon terms and conditions that are fair and reasonable. He also has power to execute, acknowledge, and deliver any and all deeds, assignments, releases, and other instruments necessary or proper to effectuate any sale of property or other transaction in connection with the liquidation.

(10) To borrow money on the security of the insurer's assets or without security and to execute and deliver all documents necessary to that transaction for the purpose of facilitating the liquidation.

(11) To enter into contracts necessary to carry out the order to liquidate, and to affirm or disavow any contracts to which the insurer is a party.

(12) To continue to prosecute and to institute in the name of the insurer or in his own name any and all suits and other legal proceedings, in this State or elsewhere, and to abandon the prosecution of claims he considers unprofitable to pursue further. If the insurer is dissolved under Section 38-27-390, he has the power to apply to any court in this State or elsewhere for leave to substitute himself for the insurer as plaintiff.

(13) To prosecute any action which may exist in behalf of the creditors, members, policyholders, or shareholders of the insurer against any officer of the insurer or any other person.

(14) To remove any or all records and property of the insurer to the offices of the department or to any other place convenient for the purposes of efficient and orderly execution of the liquidation. Guaranty associations and foreign guaranty associations shall have such reasonable access to the records of the insurer as is necessary for them to carry out their statutory obligations.

(15) To deposit in one or more banks in this State sums required for meeting current administration expenses and dividend distributions.

(16) To invest all sums not currently needed, unless the court orders otherwise.

(17) To file any necessary documents for recording in the office of any recorder of deeds or record office in this State or elsewhere where property of the insurer is located.

(18) To assert all defenses available to the insurer as against third persons, including statutes of limitation, statutes of fraud, and the defense of usury. A waiver of any defense by the insurer after a petition in liquidation has been filed does not bind the liquidator. Whenever a guaranty association or foreign guaranty association has an obligation to defend any suit, the liquidator shall give precedence to that obligation and may defend only in the absence of a defense by the guaranty associations.

(19) To exercise and enforce all the rights, remedies, and powers of any creditor, shareholder, policyholder, or member, including any power to avoid any transfer or lien that may be given by the general law and that is not included with Sections 38-27-450 through 38-27-470.

(20) To intervene in any proceeding wherever instituted that might lead to the appointment of a receiver or trustee and to act as the receiver or trustee whenever the appointment is offered.

(21) To enter into agreements with any receiver or commissioner of any other state relating to the rehabilitation, liquidation, conservation, or dissolution of an insurer doing business in both states.

(22) To exercise all powers now held or hereafter conferred upon receivers by the laws of this State not inconsistent with this chapter.

(23) To audit the books and records of agents of the insurer insofar as those records relate to the business activities of the insurer.

(24) Notwithstanding the powers of the liquidator in subsections (a) and (b), the liquidator is not obligated to defend claims or to continue to defend claims after the entry of a liquidation order.

(b) The enumeration, in this section, of the powers and authority of the liquidator may not be construed as a limitation upon him; nor shall it exclude in any manner his right to do other acts not herein specifically enumerated, or otherwise provided for, that may be necessary or appropriate for the accomplishment of or in aid of the purpose of liquidation.

HISTORY: Former 1976 Code Section 38-5-2100 [1982 Act No. 384, Section 21] recodified as Section 38-27-400 by 1987 Act No. 155, Section 1; 1991 Act No. 13, Sections 22, 23; 1993 Act No. 181, Section 618.