(a)

Terms Used In Tennessee Code 47-18-2604

  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Dependents: includes a payee's spouse and minor children and all other family members and other persons for whom the payee is legally obligated to provide support, including alimony. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Interested parties: means , with respect to any structured settlement, the payee, the annuity issuer, the structured settlement obligor, and any other party to the structured settlement that has continuing rights or obligations to receive or make payments under such structured settlement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Liabilities: The aggregate of all debts and other legal obligations of a particular person or legal entity.
  • Payee: means an individual who is receiving tax-free damage payments under a structured settlement and proposes to make a transfer of payment rights thereunder. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Person: means a natural person, consumer, individual, governmental agency, partnership, corporation, trust, estate, incorporated or unincorporated association, and any other legal or commercial entity however organized. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2102
  • Responsible administrative authority: means , with respect to a structured settlement, any government authority vested by law with exclusive jurisdiction over the settled claim resolved by such structured settlement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
  • Structured settlement: means an arrangement for periodic payment of damages for personal injuries established by settlement or judgment in resolution of a tort claim. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Structured settlement agreement: means the agreement, judgment, stipulation, or release embodying the terms of a structured settlement, including the rights of the payee to receive periodic payments. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Structured settlement obligor: means , with respect to any structured settlement, the party that has the continuing periodic payment obligation to the payee under a structured settlement agreement or a qualified assignment agreement. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Structured settlement payment rights: means rights to receive periodic payments (including lump sum payments) under a structured settlement, whether from the settlement obligor or the annuity issuer where:
    (A) The payee is domiciled in this state. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Tort: A civil wrong or breach of a duty to another person, as outlined by law. A very common tort is negligent operation of a motor vehicle that results in property damage and personal injury in an automobile accident.
  • Transfer: means any sale, assignment, pledge, hypothecation, commutation, advance or other form of alienation or encumbrance made by a payee for consideration. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • Transfer agreement: means the agreement providing for transfer of structured settlement payment rights from a payee to a transferee. See Tennessee Code 47-18-2602
  • written: includes printing, typewriting, engraving, lithography, and any other mode of representing words and letters. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) The circuit court shall have nonexclusive jurisdiction over any approval of a transfer of structured settlement payment rights.
(2) An application under this part for approval of transfer of structured settlement payment rights shall be made by the transferee and may be brought:

(A) In the county in which the payee resides or where the settlement was approved or judgment rendered in the underlying tort claim; or
(B) In any court or before any responsible administrative authority that approved the structured settlement agreement.
(3)

(A) Upon the filing of an application of approval of a transfer of structured settlement payment rights, any interested party may request a hearing. If a hearing is requested, the court shall conduct a hearing within sixty (60) days from such request.
(B) The payee shall appear in person at the hearing, unless the court determines upon the motion of an interested party that good cause exists to excuse the payee from the hearing.
(b) Not less than twenty (20) days prior to the scheduled hearing on any application for authorization of a transfer of structured settlement payment rights under § 47-18-2603, the transferee shall file with the court or responsible administrative authority and serve on any other government authority which previously approved the structured settlement, and on all interested parties, a notice of the proposed transfer and the application for its authorization, including in such notice:

(1) A copy of the transferee’s application;
(2) A copy of the transfer agreement;
(3) A copy of the disclosure statement required under § 47-18-2603(2);
(4) Notification that any interested party is entitled to support, oppose or otherwise respond to the transferee’s application, either in person or by counsel, by submitting written comments to the court or responsible administrative authority or by participating in the hearing;
(5) Notification of the time and place of the hearing and notification of the manner in which and the time by which written responses to the application must be filed (which shall be not less than fifteen (15) days after service of the transferee’s notice) in order to be considered by the court or responsible administrative authority; and
(6) A sworn statement detailing whether there have been any requested, proposed, or approved transfers of the structured settlement payment rights prior to the instant filing.
(c) In determining whether the transfer is in the payee’s best interest under § 47-18-2603(3), the court should consider:

(1) The terms of the transfer;
(2) Whether the payee has other sources of income, other than the structured settlement payment rights to be transferred;
(3) The effect of the transfer, if any, on the payee’s dependents and whether the transfer would be likely to result in financial hardship for such dependents; and
(4) If a payee is currently required by a court order, judgment, or decree to pay child support or alimony, the effect of the transfer on the payee’s ability to continue to pay such support or alimony.
(d) The structured settlement obligor and annuity issuer shall, as to all parties except the transferee, be discharged and released from any and all liability for the transferred payments.
(e) The transferee and any assignee shall be liable to the structured settlement obligor and the annuity issuer for any and all taxes and other costs and liabilities, other than costs incurred in opposing the transfer, incurred as a result of complying with the court order approving the transfer.
(f) Neither the annuity issuer nor the structured settlement obligor may be required to divide any structured settlement payment between the payee and any transferee or assignee or between two (2) or more transferees or assignees.
(g) If any party acting in bad faith withholds consent to the transfer, the court may, in its discretion, award the prevailing party reasonable attorney fees and costs.
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