1. If a dispute arises between different counties or between the administrator and a county as to the legal settlement of a person admitted or committed to a state hospital for persons with mental illness, the attorney general, at the request of the administrator, shall, without the advancement of fees, cause an action to be brought in the district court of any county where such dispute exists, to determine the person's legal settlement. This action may be brought at any time when it appears that the dispute cannot be amicably settled. All counties which may be the place of the legal settlement, so far as known, shall be made defendants and the allegation of the settlement may be in the alternative. The action shall be tried as in equity.
2. In lieu of an action filed under subsection 1, the parties to a dispute concerning a person's legal settlement may settle the dispute through an alternative dispute resolution process agreed to by the parties. The alternative dispute resolution process may include but is not limited to mediation, binding arbitration, or other mutually agreeable form of resolution. A resolution of the dispute agreed to by the parties shall be stipulated to and filed in the office of the clerk of the district court.
3. If an action under this section involves a dispute between counties, the county determined to be the county of legal settlement shall reimburse a county for the amount of costs paid by that county on behalf of the person and for interest on this amount in accordance with section 535.3. In addition, the court may order the county determined to be the county of legal settlement to reimburse any other county involved in the dispute for the other county's reasonable legal costs related to the dispute and may tax the reasonable legal costs as court costs. The court may order the county determined to be the county of legal settlement to pay a penalty to the other county, in an amount which does not exceed twenty percent of the total amount of reimbursement and interest.
4. An action filed or an alternative dispute resolution stipulated to under this section is subject to the applicable provisions of sections 230.13 and 230.14.
[C73, § 1418; C97, § 2270, 2282; S13, § 2270; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, § 3592; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, § 230.12]
91 Acts, ch 267, §141; 94 Acts, ch 1170, §4; 95 Acts, ch 119, §1, 5; 96 Acts, ch 1129, § 113
Referred to in § 230.13, 230.14, 232.141
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