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Carpenter Technology Corp. v. Admiral Insurance Co.6/17/2002
ors to detract us from those central purposes. In any event, a claimant is better off obtaining as much money as possible from the foreign association first approached to eliminate the need for further litigation in this State.
The Legislature was well aware of that reality when it enacted the Act. Indeed, the Act expressly authorizes our New Jersey association to " nvestigate claims brought against the association and adjust, compromise, settle, and pay covered claims to the extent of the association's obligation[.]" N.J.S.A. 17:30A-8a(4) (emphasis added). Given the large volume of civil cases, I doubt that the system could function properly without parties engaging in some form of compromise. One commentator has observed aptly that " ost practitioners and academics consider it to be in the public interest to have disputes settled between parties without a judicial decision." Seth Nesin, The Benefits of Applying Issue Preclusion to Interlocutory Judgments in Cases That Settle, 76 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 874, 889 (2001). The Court needlessly raises the specter that cases in this area will be tried to their bitter conclusions irrespective of the merits of the disputes or the public's interest in having litigants resolve their differences amicably. Lastly, the majority posits that "a major goal" of the statute is " he conservation of resources[.]" Ante at ___ (Slip op. at 14). The majority overstates the significance of that aspect of the Act. The overarching aim of the Act is, as the Legislature itself declared, "to avoid financial loss to claimants or policyholders because of the insolvency of an insurer[.]" N.J.S.A. 17:30A-2.
To be sure, our Legislature intended our resources to be husbanded by capping our fund's liability at $300,000 per claim and excluding certain claims and damages from the scope of recovery. N.J.S.A. 17:30A-8a(1); N.J.S.A. 17:30A-5(d). Those cost-containment methods, however, do not reflect any intention on the part of the Legislature to reduce the fund's obligation by sums never actually received by a claimant.
V.
In sum, the Act's clear goal is to protect insureds as part of a national legislative pattern established to address the inequities and hardships caused by insurance company insolvencies. Interpreting the statute to advance New Jersey's parochial financial interest is at odds with that objective. In the last analysis, those financial interests are overstated when one considers that our true interest in this case is to fund an environmental clean-up plan for four New Jersey sites. Because that interest is not advanced by the majority's approach and for the other reasons stated, I would affirm the judgment of the Appellate Division.
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