Opinion ID: 2441317
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Tennessee Liquidation Order

Text: Anchorage Fire & Casualty Insurance Company (Anchorage) is in liquidation in Tennessee. In March 1993, a Tennessee chancery court issued a conservation order placing Anchorage in receivership pursuant to the Tennessee Insurers Rehabilitation and Liquidation Act (TIRLA). Tenn.Code Ann. §§ 56-9-101 to -510 (1994). The conservation order directed the Tennessee Commissioner of Commerce and Insurance (the Commissioner) to take possession of and administer Anchorage's assets; the order specifically authorized the Commissioner to act outside of Tennessee to marshal and conserve Anchorage's assets. The order also temporarily enjoined all persons from transferring or disposing of Anchorage's property, from interfering with the conservator or the conservatorship, from instituting or further prosecuting any actions or proceedings against Anchorage, and from obtaining preferences, judgments, attachments, or other liens against Anchorage or its assets. The Tennessee court later converted the conservation order into a liquidation order, invoking section 56-9-402 of TIRLA as its jurisdictional basis. Section 56-9-402 allows liquidation of the assets found in [Tennessee] of a foreign or alien insurer not domiciled in Tennessee. TIRLA § 56-9-402. The liquidation order converted the temporary injunction into a permanent injunction. More importantly for purposes of this opinion, the order also empowered the liquidator to take possession of all Anchorage assets wherever located. The order named the Commissioner as the liquidator, and authorized him to act through petitioner Jeanne Barnes Bryant (the Liquidator).