South Carolina § 27-32-220 - Limitations on payments from fund.

§ 27-32-220. Limitations on payments from fund.

These limitations apply to payments from the recovery fund:

(1) Only the applicant's actual damages are paid from the recovery fund. An applicant may not recover punitive, special, or consequential damages or attorney's fees.

(2) The fund is not liable for more than five thousand dollars for each transaction, regardless of the number of persons aggrieved or the number of time sharing interests involved in the transaction.

(3) The liability of the fund may not exceed in the aggregate ten thousand dollars for any one registrant or licensee in a single calendar year and in no event may exceed twenty thousand dollars for any one registrant or licensee.

(4) If the maximum liability of the fund is insufficient to pay in full the valid claims of all aggrieved persons whose claims relate to the same transaction or to the same registrant or licensee, the amount for which the fund is liable must be distributed among the claimants in a ratio that their respective claims bear to the total of the valid claims or in the manner as the Board of Arbitrators in its sole discretion shall decide. The Board of Arbitrators in its sole discretion is empowered to join in one action all claims having a common factual basis so that an equitable distribution from the fund may be achieved.

(5) If valid claims against the fund exceed the monies it contains, the commission shall satisfy the unpaid claims or portions of them as soon as a sufficient amount of money has been deposited, together with interest at the rate of eight percent a year from the date of award. All claims against the fund must be made in the same order as the awards from it were authorized by the Board of Arbitrators. An award is not a claim against the State if it is not paid due to a lack of funds in the Vacation Time Sharing Recovery Fund.

HISTORY: 1981 Act No. 106, SECTION 5; 1994 Act No. 385, SECTION 52; 2003 Act No. 84, SECTION 1.