| SB 331 | Committee | Buckson | This Act allows a lienholder that has a lien under § 3901 of Title 25, often called a garagekeeper’s lien, to recover reasonable attorney’s fees from the proceeds of a sale to satisfy a garagekeeper’s lien. If the lienholder is not paid within 30 days after the lien is created, the lienholder may apply to a Justice of the Peace Court to sell the property. Under § 3903 and § 3905 of Title 25, the lienholder may recover the costs of the sale and the lien amount. Applying for authorization to sell property to satisfy a garagekeeper’s lien is a detailed process and many lienholders need to hire an attorney to help. But a court will not grant attorney’s fees without express statutory authority. This Act amends § 3903 and § 3905 to expressly allow a lienholder to recover attorney’s fees from the proceeds of a sale to satisfy a garagekeeper’s lien.
This Act also allows excess proceeds from a garagekeeper’s lien sale to be used to satisfy other outstanding judgments against the owner of the property sold. Currently, under § 3905 of Title 25, sale proceeds are first used to pay the garagekeeper’s lien and costs related to the lien sale. Any extra proceeds are deposited with the Court and used to pay other liens on or security interests in the property sold. If there are still proceeds remaining, the Court must give the excess proceeds to the property owner or, if the property owner cannot be found, to the State Treasurer who holds the proceeds for the property owner to claim within 1 year. If the property owner does not claim the excess proceeds within 1 year, the excess proceeds are placed in the General Fund. Generally, money held in custody of the law may not be attached to satisfy an outstanding judgment. But in several cases, including Lowe v. Hulliger, 86 A.2d 749 (Del. Super. Ct. 1952), Delaware Courts have recognized an exception to this rule. Money left over that is due to a defendant or debtor after all legal obligations are paid may be attached to satisfy another judgment against the defendant or debtor. This Act codifies the exception for garagekeeper’s lien sale proceeds by allowing the Court to pay judgment creditors who apply within 30 days of the sale to attach any excess sale proceeds remaining after all other costs, liens, and security interests have been paid and before the excess sale proceeds are paid to the property owner.
This Act also makes technical corrections to conform existing law to the standards of the Delaware Legislative Drafting Manual. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 25 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO GARAGEKEEPER'S LIENS. |
| SB 332 | Committee | Pettyjohn | This Act clarifies that special vanity license plates, which in Delaware are personal property, may be transferred from one owner to another without violating a U.S. District Court injunction that bars Delaware from issuing any new special vanity license plates or recalling any that the Division of Motor Vehicles has already issued. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 21 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SPECIAL VANITY LICENSE PLATES. |
| SA 1 to SS 2 for SB 269 | PWB | Sturgeon | This Amendment removes the state employee group health insurance plans from the coverage required by SS 2 for SB 269 by deleting the lines that make changes to Chapter 52 of Title 29. | |
| SB 333 | Committee | Mantzavinos | Long-term care facilities provide an important function in caring for the most vulnerable populations of the State of Delaware. However, these facilities are not required to have liability insurance to protect residents from harm caused by the facility. The bankruptcy filing of Genesis Health Care, one of the nation’s largest nursing home providers, which has operated facilities in Delaware, shed new light on the problems of long-term care facilities not being required to have liability insurance. Hundreds of claims across the country, including Delaware claims, related to substandard care causing injury or death to individuals face having no legal recourse to hold these facilities accountable. These claims include claims which Genesis had agreed to resolve for set amounts, which were to be satisfied with payments made in the future. Genesis filed for bankruptcy prior to making payments on many of these claims, including several claims resolved in Delaware, forcing the claimants to engage in a new and expensive process to pursue justice they had already resolved on their behalf or on behalf of their loved one.
This Act requires long-term care facilities to have insurance policies that provide a minimum of $1 million per claim/$3 million aggregate coverage each for general liability and professional liability. This Act takes effect 180 days after enactment. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO LONG TERM CARE FACILITIES |
| SB 334 | Committee | Pinkney | The Health Care Professional Access Act requires carriers to participate in uniform processes with specific timetables to create speed-to-market for health care professionals. Currently, health care professionals may be employed for 6 months or more with no ability to collect insurer reimbursement due to lengthy carrier credentialing process. Ensuring uniformity across carriers, as well as relevant procedural standards, will help attract and retain health care professionals in our state, enable movement between practices and the creation of new ones, and ensure nondiscrimination in credentialing decisions.
Under this Act, credentialing processes are limited to 45 days. This Act additionally provides for provisional credentialing, whereby reimbursement ability is provided even more quickly for certain health care professionals, including FQHCs, and in designated shortage areas which currently include mental health professionals statewide and primary and dental care in Kent and Sussex Counties, or is offered if timelines are not met. Oversight of compliance with this Act falls to the applicable regulatory agency. The Act also ensures specific processes and health care professional rights during a carrier’s intent to terminate a credential.
More than 30 states have credentialing standards in law, with additional jurisdictions considering relevant legislation. Components of this legislation are derived from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ Health Care Professional Credentialing Verification Model Act.
| AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 18 AND 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO HEALTH CARE. |
| SB 338 | Committee | Cruce | This Act removes the cap on the amount of tax a county or municipality can levy on poles, wires, cable and conduit for distribution of telephone communication services.
This Act requires a greater than majority vote for passage because § 1 of Article IX of the Delaware Constitution requires the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the members elected to each house of the General Assembly to amend a municipal charter, whether directly, by amendment to a specific municipality's charter, or, as in this Act, indirectly, by a general law. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 9 AND TITLE 22 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE. |
| SB 339 | Committee | Seigfried | This Act makes a technical correction to the optional special powers form in the Uniform Health Care Decisions Act in Title 16. Currently, the existing language in the form implies any number of days can be written in to the advance directive when designating a maximum length of time for a mental health care related admission. However, under § 2518(e) of Title 16, an agent or default surrogate may not consent to voluntary admission of an individual to a facility for mental health treatment for longer than 72 hours. This Act removes the open-ended language in the form, so that a voluntary admission to a mental health facility by an agent may not exceed 72 hours. | AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 16 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ADVANCE HEALTH CARE DIRECTIVES. |
