Ask Me Help Desk - Garnishment Release From The Court

I am going to try and make a long story short. My mother is 82 with Alzheimers. My brother is 41 and the caretaker of my mother. He has Mestases Melanoma. My mother receives Social Security and my brother receives Social Security Disability, both by direct deposit into a joint checking account. On Sept. 16th there was a judgement against my mother for a very old credit card debt and their joint account was frozen. As soon as my brother discovered this, he called the attorney for the debt collector and explained that the money in the account was from SSI and SSD and therefore exempt, which the attorney for the debt collector agreed. The garnishment was released by the court on Sept. 22nd.

As of today, the attorney for the debt collector said that they never even saw the money, and the bank is giving him the runaround. My brother will be receiving Chemotherapy very soon and my mother is almost out of her medications. We have the Garnishment Release from the court and my brother took a copy of it to the bank.

So, now my question is "who is responsible for returning the money back to the account"? This is in Michigan. I am planning on going to the bank and parking my butt there until this is resolved, but I need to find out who exactly is responsible to return the money.

He has contacted Social Security to receive paper checks from now on, and plans on closing out this account as soon as the money is put back in, but with so many excuses from the bank and a major blame game going on, he is at his wits end. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank You!

Generally, the initial order only freezes the account and doesn't withdraw any money. So the money should still be in the account. The bank should take the Release order and immediately restore the account.

By the way, I wonder how it got so far that a garnishment order was issued. Did you not know of the suit over the debt?

Yes, the money would have merely been frozen, not removed from the bank. If the bank transferred ( paid) any money to the court or to the lender, then the bank has to produce a copy of the transfer paperwork.

If they do produce the paper work showing the money was sent, then you will have to follow the money.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

Generally, the initial order only freezes the account and doesn't withdraw any money. So the money should still be in the account. The bank should take the Release order and immediately restore the account.

By the way, I wonder how it got so far that a garnishment order was issued. Did you not know of the suit over the debt?

Scott: I did not know of the suit. As I stated, my brother lives with my mother as he is her caretaker. He does not remember receiving anything, but he said that something may have come in the mail and he doesn't remember. This debt is actually on a credit card that my dad had. He passed away 13 years ago, and since my mom had a card in her name on the account, the debt reverted to her.

May I ask you - if the bank does have the Release as my brother hand delivered it to them, and the bank manager was the person that called the attorney for the debt collector to verify what my brother told them - that their deposits are exempt, do you have an inkling why the bank is hesitating to unfreeze the account? As I stated, I plan on making a trip up there (they live in northern Michigan and I live in southern Michigan) and parking my butt in a chair until this is resolved. I am just trying to gather as much information as possible.

I want to thank you for your response. I greatly appreciate it.

I really don't understand why the bank is hesitating. There are two possible scenarios here. Either the bank jumped the gun and transferred the money or the money was never transferred.

In the first case, they just need to show the money transfer record and then, as Chuck said, you need to follow the money to get it back.

In the second case, they simply need to unfreeze the account.

In either case, they should have been able to clear this already. What you might do is contact the Michigan Banking Dept to see if they can help.

As for the judgement. Unless mom signed as a co-borrower on the account, she wouldn't be responsible for the debt. However, if she used the account after his death, that may have acknowledged it was her debt.

In any case, its very possible the SOL has expired on this. So I would check with the court that issued the judgement. See if it was a default judgement and if so, ask that it be vacated on the grounds of improper service and expired SOL.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ScottGem

I really don't understand why the bank is hesitating. There are two possible scenarios here. Either the bank jumped the gun and transferred the money or the money was never transferred.

In the first case, they just need to show the money transfer record and then, as Chuck said, you need to follow the money to get it back.

In the second case, they simply need to unfreeze the account.

In either case, they should have been able to clear this already. What you might do is contact the Michigan Banking Dept to see if they can help.

As for the judgement. Unless mom signed as a co-borrower on the account, she wouldn't be responsible for the debt. However, if she used the account after his death, that may have acknowledged it was her debt.

In any case, its very possible the SOL has expired on this. So I would check with the court that issued the judgement. See if it was a default judgement and if so, ask that it be vacated on the grounds of improper service and expired SOL.

Scott: Thank You! I also just contacted a good friend of ours who is a lawyer and he is going to write a letter to the back for me to take tomorrow.