TITLE 4: ECONOMIC RESOURCES
DIVISION 5: BUSINESS REGULATION
§ 51554. Payment to Injured Person After Notice of Lien; Liability and Payment to Hospital. (a) Any person or his insurer who, after the receipt of a certified copy of the notice of lien pursuant to 4 CMC § 51552, makes any payment to the injured person, his heirs, personal representatives or the attorney for any of them, as compensation for the injury suffered, without paying the hospital the reasonable value of hospitalization rendered to the injured person and claimed in its notice of lien or so much thereof as can be satisfied out of the money due under any final judgment, settlement or compromise, after paying the attorney’s fees, costs and expenses incurred in connection therewith and any prior liens, is, for a period of 180 days after the date of that payment, liable to the hospital for the amount or part thereof which the hospital was entitled to receive. The hospital has, within that period, a cause of action or other claim for relief against the person or insurer making the payment, which may be prosecuted and maintained wherein the notice of lien was filed. (b) The person or his insurer shall make the payment to the hospital by issuing to the hospital a separate check or other negotiable instrument. Source: PL 15-117, § 2(51454), modified. Commission Comment: The Commission modified this section pursuant to 1 CMC § 3806(c) by changing references to agree with the renumbered sections.