§ 25-21,288.Fair market value of total gross assets; adjustment.

Once a successor corporation settles on the fair market value of its total gross assets under section 25-21,287, section 25-21,288 tells it how that figure grows with time. Except as the later subsections limit it, the value increases each year by adding the prime rate listed in the first edition of the Wall Street Journal published for that calendar year — or, if the Journal does not publish a prime rate that year, any reasonable determination of the prime rate as of January 1 — plus one percentage point. The increase is not compounded; each year’s addition stands on its own rather than building on the prior year’s total.

The annual increase does not run forever. It continues only until the adjusted value of total gross assets is first exceeded by the cumulative successor asbestos-related liabilities that the successor corporation, a predecessor, or a transferor has paid or committed to pay after the merger or consolidation. Once paid and committed liabilities catch up with the adjusted asset value, the adjustment stops. And liability insurance carved out under section 25-21,287(3) never receives this annual increase — its value stays fixed at whatever figure it was originally included at.