Goodstein v. Goodstein

563 A.2d 522, 386 Pa. Super. 556, 1989 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2675
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 30, 1989
DocketNo. 2539
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 563 A.2d 522 (Goodstein v. Goodstein) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goodstein v. Goodstein, 563 A.2d 522, 386 Pa. Super. 556, 1989 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2675 (Pa. Ct. App. 1989).

Opinion

BROSKY, Judge.

This is an appeal from an order denying in part appellant’s Preliminary Objections to a Praecipe for Writ of Execution and the entry of a judgment of garnishment. Under the Praecipe appellant’s wages would be garnished for satisfaction of a foreign judgment representing arrearages in unallocated alimony and support payments and other monetary awards. The trial court denied appellant’s Preliminary Objections to the extent that the judgment represents past due alimony and/or support.

The issue raised here is whether garnishment of wages for payment of a judgment which represents unallocated alimony and support is allowable under Pennsylvania law. We conclude that it is and affirm the trial court’s order to the extent attachment is for alimony and/or support, and remand for allocation of support, alimony and other charges included in the foreign judgment.

The parties were divorced in the State of Connecticut on January 20, 1983. At that time they had one minor child, bom November 3, 1967. The decree of divorce provided, among other things, that appellant pay “unallocated alimony and support in the sum of $200 per week.” He was also ordered to pay past due mortgage payments and all existing liens and taxes on property awarded to appellee, appraisal fees, CPA charges, counsel fees, and other monetary awards. In addition, the divorce decree reaffirmed certain prior pendente lite orders against appellant.

On June 25, 1985, the Connecticut Superior Court of the County of Hartford entered a judgment against appellant in the amount of $42,966.79 for arrearages on the January 20, 1983 order. Appellee subsequently transferred this judg[558]*558ment to the State of Pennsylvania pursuant to the provisions of the Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, 42 Pa.C.S. § 4306. On February 11, 1988, appellee filed a Praecipe for Writ of Execution against appellant’s employer, seeking garnishment of appellant’s wages to satisfy the foreign judgment. This appeal, perhaps incorrectly taken, is from the ruling denying appellant’s Preliminary Objections to the attachment of wages for past due alimony and/or support. However, as it was taken after entry of the final judgment of garnishment we do not find the defect to be fatal to the appeal. Pa.R.A.P. 905.

Appellant contends that the trial court erred in its determination that a foreign degree encompassing multiple forms of monetary relief, including unallocated alimony and support, could be enforced through garnishment procedures provided for under 42 Pa.C.S. § 8127(b).1 This statute provides:

The wages, salaries, and commissions of individuals, shall, while in the hands of the employer, be exempt from any attachment, execution, or other process except upon an action or proceeding: (1) for support.

(Emphasis added.)

Specifically, appellant maintains that in Pennsylvania “alimony” and “alimony pendente lite” are different entitlements, with different requirements, and that the word “support” in § 8127(1) does not encompass “alimony.” Therefore, appellant argues, since the law in question is silent with regard to alimony and permits only support payments to be withheld from an employee’s wages, a [559]*559judgment for unallocated support and alimony should not be enforced. In support of his argument, appellant relies on the Statutory Construction Act, which provides:

When the words of a statute are clear and free from all ambiguity, the letter of it is not to be disregarded under the pretext of pursuing its spirit.

1 Pa.C.S. § 1921(b). Appellant also cites the provision of the Statutory Construction Act that controls interpretation of technical words and phrases:

“[Wjords and phrases shall be construed according to ... their common and approved usage; but technical words and phrases and such others have acquired a peculiar and appropriate meaning ... shall be construed according to such peculiar and appropriate meaning or definition.”

1 Pa.C.S. § 1903(a). Appellant contends the terms “alimony” and “alimony pendente lite” are technical words defined by the Divorce Code, 23 P.S. § 104, and are applied by the courts with specificity.

Since 42 Pa.C.S. § 8127 is devoid of any definition of “support” or “alimony,” the trial court, in determining that the terms are synonymous for the purpose of wage attachment, turned to the definition of alimony in the Divorce Code, 23 P.S. § 104. There, alimony is defined as “an order for support granted by this or any other state to a spouse or former spouse in conjunction with a decree granting a divorce or annulment.” (Emphasis added.)

The provision of § 8127 which permits garnishment “for support” is a 1982 amendment to the statute, and there is little case law interpreting this phrase that applies specifically to the issue at hand. Thus, the trial court considered case law interpreting statutory provisions which exempt pensions and annuities from attachment. Although none of the cases were squarely on point with the instant case, certain language in those cases led the trial court to conclude that wages are not exempt from garnishment to enforce orders for alimony or child support.

In the first case examined by the trial court, Young v. Young, 507 Pa. 40, 488 A.2d 264 (1985), the issue was [560]*560whether a spouse could enforce a New Jersey court order for support arrearages by attaching the husband’s police pension. As in the instant case, after judgment was entered in the foreign jurisdiction it was filed in Pennsylvania. The Young court determined that the purpose of the statutes exempting pensions from attachment was to protect pension funds from the claims of creditors for the benefit of the employees and their families. The court then cited the Pennsylvania policy of giving priority to the enforcement of support orders and reasoned that a refusal to enforce the New Jersey court order would be inimical to this purpose. For these reasons the court allowed attachment of the pension to satisfy a court order whose purpose was to enforce support obligations.

Another case cited by the trial court, Hollman v. Hollman, 347 Pa.Super. 289, 500 A.2d 837 (1985), rev’d, 515 Pa. 288, 528 A.2d 146 (1987), considered the issue of whether or not pension payments of a former spouse could be attached to satisfy a judgment for arrearages under a support agreement. The Superior Court endorsed attachment for certain purposes, but concluded that attachment would not be permitted for enforcement of a support agreement. Our decision was reversed by the Supreme Court who thereby extended the attachment and garnishment remedy further than we found ourselves able to do. Nevertheless, we had concluded, and the Supreme Court’s stance would certainly affirm our position, that:

Garnishment of wages or a pension is ... applicable to court orders of support and alimony, as a legislatively empowered exercise of court authority to implement its orders. 347 Pa.Super. at 300, 500 A.2d at 843. (Emphasis added).

Discussing the exemption from wage attachment under 42 Pa.C.S. § 8127, the court in Ankrom v. Ankrom, 366 Pa.Super.

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619 A.2d 703 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
563 A.2d 522, 386 Pa. Super. 556, 1989 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2675, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodstein-v-goodstein-pasuperct-1989.