2006 Minnesota Statutes

115B.441 INSURANCE CLAIMS SETTLEMENT AND RECOVERY PROCESS;
FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.
(a) The legislature finds that:
(1) insurers have issued certain insurance policies to their policyholders that may have
provided coverage for environmental response costs related to qualified facilities for which
their policyholders bear legal responsibility;
(2) because the commissioner is required by law to take over responsibility for environmental
response actions relating to all qualified facilities, any rights to coverage based upon the insurers'
contractual obligations to their policyholders to pay environmental response costs that are
assumed by the state related to these facilities, to the extent the obligations may exist, are rights
that should fairly accrue to the state; and
(3) the resolution of these potential insurance coverage rights should provide a fair share
of the cost to the state of taking over these environmental responsibilities consistent with the
insurers' potential coverage obligations to their policyholders.
(b) The purposes of sections 115B.441 to 115B.445 are:
(1) to provide the means for the state and insurers to resolve claims of the state for
environmental response costs related to qualified facilities that may be covered by insurance
policies of persons who bear legal responsibility for those costs; and
(2) to create a fair and efficient settlement process that provides insurers with an opportunity
to settle claims based upon a reasonable approximation of the insurers' potential coverage exposure
and a fair opportunity for the state to recover claims by legal action from nonsettling insurers.
History: 1996 c 370 s 1