SECOND REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 1534

88TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES MURRAY (Sponsor) (135), KAUFFMAN, HARTZLER (123) AND WHITESIDE.

Read 1st time February 14, 1996 and 1000 copies ordered printed.

DOUGLAS W. BURNETT, Chief Clerk

L3206.01

AN ACT

To repeal section 537.675, RSMo 1994, relating to the tort victims' compensation fund, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Section 537.675, RSMo 1994, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 1, to read as follows:

Section 1. Any funds remaining in the tort victims' compensation fund on August 28, 1996, shall be transferred and credited to the budget stabilization fund created pursuant to section 33.285, RSMo.

[537.675. 1. There is created the "Tort Victims' Compensation Fund". Un-expended moneys in the fund shall not lapse at the end of the biennium as provided in section 33.080, RSMo.

2. Fifty percent of any final judgment awarding punitive damages after the deduction of attorneys' fees and expenses shall be deemed rendered in favor of the state of Missouri. The circuit clerks shall notify the attorney general of any final judgment awarding punitive damages rendered in their circuits. With respect to such fifty percent, the attorney general shall collect upon such judgment, and may execute or make settlements with respect thereto as he deems appropriate for deposit into the fund.

3. The state of Missouri shall have no interest in or right to intervene at any stage of any judicial proceeding under this section.

4. No disbursement shall be made from the tort victims' compensation fund until procedures for disbursement are established by further action of the general assembly.]