Bill Text: HI SB2498 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Interest; Claims Against the State; Legal Settlements

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2012-02-17 - (S) Report adopted; Passed Second Reading, as amended (SD 1) and referred to WAM. [SB2498 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2498-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2341

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2498

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2498 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CLAIMS AGAINST THE STATE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide an interest rate of up to ten percent on any unfunded settlement claim against the State, its officers, or its employees.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Association for Justice.  The Department of the Attorney General submitted comments.

 

     Your Committee finds that settlement claims against the State are normally funded by the Legislature on a timely basis.  However, there are occasionally some settlements that are not timely funded because the appropriations bill for claims against the State is not enacted in the same calendar year that the bill was before the Legislature.  As such, settlement payments are delayed for an additional year until the next regular legislative session.  This measure fairly remedies this situation by allowing an interest to be paid on the monies due on any settlement claims.  Thus, this measure holds the State accountable to satisfy settlement payments and further encourages parties to settle with the State rather than to engage in costly litigation.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adopting the suggested language submitted by the Department of the Attorney General by:

 

          (A)  Deleting the amendments made to the legal rate computation section under the interest and usury laws; and

 

          (B)  Replacing it with language that amends the law relating to claims against the State to provide an interest rate of up to four percent on any unfunded settlement claim until the appropriations bill is enacted or the payment is made; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2498, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2498, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

 

		____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair