Sec. 5. (a) If the payment in full of two (2) or more pending valid claims that have been filed by aggrieved persons against a single plumbing contractor would exceed the fifty thousand dollar ($50,000) limit set forth in section 4 of this chapter, the fifty thousand dollars ($50,000) shall be distributed among the aggrieved persons in the ratio that their respective claims bear to the aggregate of all valid claims or in any other manner that the plumbing commission may determine equitable. This money shall be distributed among the persons entitled to share in it without regard to the order of priority in which their respective judgments have been obtained or their claims have been filed.

(b) The plumbing commission shall consider pending applications filed by all claimants and prospective claimants against a single plumbing licensee jointly to the end that the respective rights of all the claimants to the plumbing commission may be equitably adjudicated and settled.

(c) On June 30 and December 31 of each year, the plumbing commission shall identify each claim that the plumbing commission orders to be paid during the six (6) month period that ended on that day. The plumbing commission shall pay the part of each claim that is so identified within fifteen (15) days after the end of the six (6) month period in which the claim is ordered paid. However, if the balance in the fund is insufficient to pay the full payable amount of each claim that is ordered to be paid during a six (6) month period, the plumbing commission shall pay a prorated portion of each claim that is ordered to be paid during the period. Any part of the payable amount of a claim left unpaid due to the prorating of payments under this subsection must be paid (subject to the fifty thousand dollar ($50,000) limit described in section 4 of this chapter) before the payment of claims ordered to be paid during the following six (6) month period.

As added by P.L.260-1987, SEC.1. Amended by P.L.134-2013, SEC.11.