Dentists, Doctors, Hospitals

     §507-4  Liens for services in personal injury cases.  Whenever any person recovers judgment for damages for personal injuries to oneself or to another, any hospital which has furnished room, board, supplies, facilities, or accommodations to the injured person in connection with the care, or treatment of such injuries, and any dentist, doctor, physician, or surgeon who has treated the injured person for such injuries, shall have a lien, subject to any common-law lien, on such judgment or the proceeds thereof for the agreed or reasonable value of the services performed or the agreed or reasonable value of the room, board, supplies, facilities, or accommodations furnished, if, before satisfaction of judgment is docketed, the dentist, doctor, physician, surgeon, or hospital files in the office of the chief clerk of the circuit court of the circuit in which the judgment was recovered, or, in the case of a judgment recovered in a district court, in the office of the clerk of the district court of the circuit in which judgment was recovered, a notice setting forth the agreed or reasonable value of the services performed or the agreed or reasonable value of the room, board, supplies, facilities, or accommodations furnished.  In the event the available proceeds of the judgment are insufficient to satisfy in full the liens herein provided, the proceeds shall, after all common-law liens have been satisfied in full, be distributed pro rata between the lienors without any priority among them.

     If the judgment debtor so elects the judgment debtor may pay the amount of the judgment to the chief clerk of the circuit or clerk of the district court in which the judgment is rendered and thereby be released from any further obligation to the judgment creditor and to the lienor.  In the event the judgment debtor pays the amount of the judgment to the clerk the lien shall attach to the sum so paid.

     The liens may be enforced by action of the lienor in the circuit court of the judicial circuit in which judgment was rendered.  Jurisdiction is conferred upon the circuit courts to hear and determine all actions brought or instituted to enforce and foreclose the liens, and the proceedings had before the circuit court shall be conducted in the same manner and form as ordinary foreclosure proceedings. [L 1939, c 251, §§1 to 3; RL 1945, §§8757, 8758, 8759; RL 1955, §193-7; HRS §507-4; am L 1970, c 188, §40; am L 1972, c 106, §1(a); gen ch 1985]

Cross References

  Deposit in court, see chapter 655.

Rules of Court

  Deposit in court, see HRCP rule 67.