Pennsylvania Statutes Title 40 P.S. Insurance § 221.20. Liquidation orders

(a) The commissioner may apply by petition to the Commonwealth Court for an order directing him to liquidate a domestic insurer, domiciled in this Commonwealth, alleging that the insurer has committed one or more acts which may constitute grounds for liquidation as set forth in sections 514 and 519 of this article.  1

(b) An order of the Commonwealth Court to liquidate the business of an insurer shall be issued only after a hearing before the court or pursuant to a written consent of the insurer.

(c) An order to liquidate the business of a domestic insurer shall appoint the commissioner and his successors in office liquidator and shall direct the liquidator forthwith to take possession of the assets of the insurer and to administer them under the orders of the court. The liquidator shall be vested by operation of law with the title to all of the property, contracts and rights of action and all of the books and records of the insurer ordered liquidated, wherever located, as of the date of the filing of the petition for liquidation. He may recover and reduce the same to possession except that ancillary receivers in reciprocal states shall have, as to assets located in their respective states, the rights and powers which are prescribed in section 556(c)  2 for ancillary receivers appointed in this Commonwealth as to assets located in this Commonwealth. The filing or recording of the order with the Clerk of the Commonwealth Court or with the recorder of deeds of the county in which the principal business of the company is conducted, or the county in which its principal office or place of business is located, shall impart the same notice as a deed, bill of sale or other evidence of title duly filed or recorded with that recorder of deeds would have imparted.

(d) Upon issuance of the order, the rights and liabilities of any such insurer and of its creditors, policyholders, shareholders, members and all other persons interested in its estate shall become fixed as of the date of filing of the petition for liquidation, except as provided in sections 521 and 539.  3

(e) An order to liquidate the business of an alien insurer domiciled in this Commonwealth shall be in the same terms and have the same legal effect as an order to liquidate a domestic insurer, except that the assets and the business in the United States shall be the only assets and business included therein.

(f) At the time of petitioning for an order of liquidation, or at any time thereafter, the commissioner, after making appropriate findings of an insurer's insolvency, following an administrative hearing, may petition the court for a judicial declaration of such insolvency. After providing such notice and hearing as are permitted for appeals from administrative agencies, the court may make the declaration.