§ 64.0721.Termination of Railroad Receivership

A closing provision for a receivership that outlasted everyone with an interest in it.

A receiver of a railroad company located wholly within this state that has been in receivership for more than 50 years may apply to the appointing court to terminate the receivership and disburse remaining assets, after payment of the company’s debts, to one or more nonprofit charitable organizations chosen by the receiver for use within the county in which the receiver was appointed.

The fifty-year threshold tells its own story. The duration limits elsewhere in the chapter cap most corporate receiverships at eight years and exempt railroads — and this is what that exemption produced.

After half a century the ordinary route out has closed. Shareholders and creditors are dead or untraceable, records are gone, and there is nobody to distribute to.

The notice requirement is designed to find whoever remains. The receiver must publish notice of the proposed termination for seven consecutive days in a newspaper of general circulation in the county, stating that a person with an interest may file a claim not later than the 90th day after the final day of publication.

Seven consecutive days and ninety more to claim is a substantial period, and it is the last opportunity anyone will have.

Only after the period expires and the court has resolved all claims filed does the court disburse remaining assets to the nonprofit charitable organizations chosen by the receiver that are acceptable to the court in its discretion.

The receiver chooses and the court approves, which keeps the selection from resting on the receiver alone.

Subsection (d) handles what charity cannot take: noncash assets existing at termination escheat to the state.