38-7-3 - Parties or insurance carrier making payment liable for satisfaction of lien -- Enforcement of lien. - Utah Statutes

38-7-3. Parties or insurance carrier making payment liable for satisfaction of lien-- Enforcement of lien.
(1) Any person, firm or corporation, including an insurance carrier, making any paymentto a patient or to his attorney, heirs or legal representative as compensation for the injuries and/ordamages sustained, after the filing and, if applicable, receipt of written notice of the lien, asaforesaid, and without paying the hospital asserting the lien the amount of its lien or that portionof the lien which can be satisfied out of the money due under any final judgment or contract ofcompromise or settlement, less payment of the amount of any prior liens, shall be liable to thehospital for the amount that the hospital was entitled to receive.
(2) Liability of the person, firm or corporation for the satisfaction of the hospital lien shallcontinue for a period of one year from and after the date of any payment of any money to thepatient, his heirs or legal representatives as damages or under a contract of compromise orsettlement. Any hospital may enforce its lien by a suit at law against the person, firm orcorporation making the payment. In the event of a suit to enforce a lien the hospital may recover areasonable attorney's fee and the costs of filing and recording the lien.

Enacted by Chapter 75, 1965 General Session