CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REP. NO. 153
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2005
RE: S.B. No. 738
S.D. 1
H.D. 1
C.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2005
State of Hawaii
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2005
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives in S.B. No. 738, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE EMPLOYEES' RETIREMENT SYSTEM,"
having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final passage of this bill in an amended form.
The purpose of this measure is to allow the Employees' Retirement System (ERS) to compromise or settle claims for benefits, including those claims arising out of detrimental reliance by ERS members on erroneous information provided by the ERS, as approved by the Attorney General.
Specifically, the ERS Board, under this measure, may compromise or settle claims for benefits to which a member or former member of the ERS would not otherwise be entitled if:
(1) The claim resulted from an erroneous written representation made by an authorized employee of the ERS;
(2) The member, in good faith reliance on the representation, decided to retire or terminate the member's employment or membership in the ERS; and
(3) Settlement is approved by the Attorney General.
The Attorney General has opined that, under the current law, the ERS is not authorized to compromise or settle claims in which an ERS member has detrimentally relied on erroneous information provided by the ERS if the settlement or compromise would result in the member receiving benefits that the member is not entitled to receive by statute. This inability to compromise or settle claims may result in severely adverse consequences to the member. Additionally, compromise or settlement is, therefore, also not authorized in other situations that have potentially adverse consequences to a member, such as a case where a member is mistakenly or incorrectly credited with service to which the member is not entitled as a matter of law.
Because a court may determine that manifest injustice has or will result from a member's detrimental reliance on information obtained from the ERS, and in order to promote the fair and efficient disposition of cases, the ERS should be authorized to compromise or settle cases instead of having to participate in full-blown litigation to achieve the same result.
Upon further consideration, your Committee on Conference has amended this measure by:
(1) Changing the effective date of the Act from July 1, 2010, to be effective upon its approval; and
(2) Requiring the Act to apply to claims existing on and arising on or after the effective date of the Act.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the managers of your Committee on Conference that is attached to this report, your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 738, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 738, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, C.D. 1.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the managers:
|
ON THE PART OF THE HOUSE |
ON THE PART OF THE SENATE |
|
____________________________ Kirk Caldwell, Co-Chair |
____________________________ Brian Kanno, Chair |
|
|
____________________________ Sylvia Luke, Co-Chair |
____________________________ Brian T. Taniguchi, Co-Chair |
|
|
____________________________ Bob Nakasone, Co-Chair |
||