If claims and claim expenses paid by the authority due to earthquake events exhaust the total of (a) the authority’s available capital, (b) the maximum amount of all insurer capital contributions and assessments pursuant to Sections 10089.15 and 10089.23, (c) all reinsurance actually available and under contract to the authority, (d) the maximum amount of all authority policyholder assessments pursuant to Section 10089.29, and (e) all capital committed and actually available from the private capital markets, the board, subject to the approval of the commissioner, shall have the power to assess participating insurance companies subject to the maximum limits in this section. Each participating insurer’s assessment shall be determined by multiplying the percentage share of the authority’s total gross written premium attributable to that participating insurer’s sales of authority insurance policies, as of April 30 of the immediately preceding year or the most recent year for which premium data not more than one year old are available, by the amount of the total assessment sought by the authority. The total amount of all assessments levied against participating insurance companies by the authority pursuant to this section shall not exceed two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000), regardless of the frequency or severity of earthquake losses at any and all times subsequent to the creation of the authority. Once a participating insurer has paid, pursuant to this section, amounts equal to its percentage share of the authority’s total gross written premium, multiplied by two billion dollars ($2,000,000,000) reduced from the maximum assessment as provided in paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 10089.23, the authority’s power to assess that insurer under this section shall cease and the authority shall be prohibited from levying additional assessments on that insurer pursuant to this section. The assessment shall be limited to the amount necessary to pay the expected claims and claim expenses of the authority and return the authority’s available capital to three hundred fifty million dollars ($350,000,000), as determined by the board, subject to approval by the commissioner.

(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 303, Sec. 6. Effective January 1, 2008. Operative July 1, 2008, by second Sec. 8 of Ch. 303.)