TN Father’s IRA Account May Not be Garnished to Cover Attorney’s Fees
Tennessee child support law case law summary on child support collection from the Court of Appeals.
Patricia Ann Gho Massey v. Gregory Joel Casals – Tennessee child support collection of attorney’s fees case
The mother, Patricia Ann Gho Massey, and the father, Gregory Joel Cassals, had a child together in 1994. In July 2008, the juvenile court gave an order modifying the father’s child support obligation and ordered him to pay over $22,000 in attorney’s fees to the mother. The mother filed an application to have the father’s IRA accounts garnished, or collected, on behalf of the mother in order to cover the award of attorney’s fees. At the same time, the father asked the garnishment to be quashed. The father discovered that his IRA accounts had been liquidated and transferred to the juvenile court.
The father appealed the decision to have his IRA accounts garnished, claiming these accounts were exempt from garnishment according to Tennessee law. The appeals court agreed with the father and sent the case back to the trial court. The trial court vacated its previous decision to garnish the IRA accounts but gave a new order for garnishment. The father filed a second appeal.
On appeal, the court, which said it was “perplexed” by the lower courts ruling, reaffirmed its earlier decision quashing the garnishment. The appeals court explained that quash means to annul or void, as if the order had never been given. Tennessee Code Annotated Section 26-2-408 dictates that when property is ruled to be exempt from garnishment by the court, it must be returned. In this case, that meant that the money removed from the father’s IRA account had to be returned to him.
No. W2011-02350-COA-R3-JV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 26, 2012).
See original opinion for exact language. Legal citations omitted.
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