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The Honolulu Advertiser
Updated at 5:04 p.m., Thursday, March 5, 2009

State pays off all claims related to bankrupt workers' comp insurer

The state has finished paying off claims arising from HIH America Insurance Co. of Hawai'i, a workers' compensation insurer it took over in 2001 because it was insolvent.

Hawai'i Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt released the final payment from the estate of the failed insurer, returning 100 percent of what was owed to creditors. The state has seized the company to protect policy holders and creditors when it determined the company was failing.

"We took control of HIH Hawai'i and guaranteed the uninterrupted payments to all of the workers compensation claimants," said Schmidt in a press statement. Most of HIH Hawai'i's hundreds of vendors, creditors and policyholders were paid early in the liquidation proceedings, receiving more than $10 million.