Lynch v. Hetman

559 N.W.2d 124, 1996 Minn. App. LEXIS 1496, 1997 WL 52335
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedFebruary 11, 1996
DocketC1-96-1639
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 559 N.W.2d 124 (Lynch v. Hetman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lynch v. Hetman, 559 N.W.2d 124, 1996 Minn. App. LEXIS 1496, 1997 WL 52335 (Mich. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

OPINION

KLAPHAKE, Judge.

State Bank of Loretto (the bank), garnishee, appeals from a partial judgment and a series of orders arising out of the district court’s initial determination that the bank had not been discharged from respondent Cecilia Lynch’s garnishment. Because we conclude that the bank was discharged, we reverse and remand.

FACTS

This action involves the ownership of certain voting shares in Temroe Metals, Inc. (Temroe). Temroe is a Minnesota corporation that has engaged in the business of aluminum extrusion since 1963. One of its incorporators and first directors was Frank W. Hetman.

The dispute at issue here concerns Het-man’s creditors. Appellant State Bank of Loretto entered into a security agreement with Hetman on December 10,1993. It held *126 Hetman’s 2,570 voting shares in Temroc as collateral on a $200,000 loan. Lynch became Hetman’s judgment creditor on February 17, 1994. “When she learned of Hetman’s relationship with the bank, she served a garnishment summons on the bank on March 20, 1995.

The following day, the bank served its nonearnings disclosure statement on Lynch. The statement indicated that the bank owed Hetman $1,907.23 and that it would retain that amount pursuant to the garnishment summons. The statement also identified as a “setoff’ the bank’s perfected prior security interest in Hetman’s 2,570 voting shares in Temroc, which the bank valued at at least the amount of the $200,000 secured loan. In response to the disclosure statement, Lynch’s attorney sent the bank a letter stating that it was her position that the Hetman shares were subject to the garnishment. It was not until August 16, 1995, about five months after service of the disclosure statement, that Lynch moved for leave to file a supplemental complaint and for an order vacating the discharge of the garnishee.

By the date of the district court’s first hearing on July 18, 1996, the bank had already transferred its interest in Hetman’s shares to the Temroc Employees’ Profit Sharing Plan and Trust (the trust) and was no longer the owner. The district court issued a series of orders based on its conclusion that the bank had not been discharged from the garnishment and that it should have retained the Hetman shares pursuant to the garnishment summons. Eventually, in a partial judgment, the court ordered that the trust transfer the shares to Lynch. Lynch then, after commencement of this appeal, proceeded with a court-ordered public sale of the shares to a third party. Lynch’s allegations of the bank’s bad faith in the proceedings remain pending before the district court.

At oral argument before this court, the parties stipulated that they were not requesting that this court “undo” the actions surrounding the shares, including the eventual sale to a third party. 1 We construe this stipulation as a waiver of issues relating to the disposition of the shares and reach only the legal issue of when the garnishee bank was discharged.

ISSUE

Did service of the bank’s noneamings disclosure statement on Lynch effect a discharge of the bank as to any further obligation regarding the Temroc voting shares?

ANALYSIS

Under the revised garnishment statutes, a garnishee, after disclosure, is discharged from further obligation to the creditor when any one of six conditions is met. Minn.Stat. § 571.79 (1994). There are, however, two express exceptions to discharge. Id. § 571.80. Absent ease law construing these statutes, we are guided by the presumption that the legislature intended the entire garnishment statute to be effective. Id. at § 645.17(2) (1996). We also construe the garnishment statute consistently with Minnesota’s policy favoring the garnishee, to protect “his rights as a neutral or unwilling litigant.” Henderson v. Northwest Airlines, Inc., 231 Minn. 503, 510, 43 N.W.2d 786, 791-92 (1950); see Altman v. Levine & Tanz, Inc., 256 Minn. 48, 52, 97 N.W.2d 460, 463 (1959).

The Minnesota legislature has identified six conditions, any one of which will discharge a garnishee after disclosure:

(a) The garnishee discloses that the garnishee is not indebted to the debtor or does not possess any money or other property belonging to the debtor that is attachable as defined in section 571.73, subdivision 3. The disclosure is conclusive against the creditor and discharges the garnishee from any further obligation to the creditor other than to retain all nonexempt disposable earnings, indebtedness, money, and property of the debtor which was disclosed.
(b) The garnishee discloses that the garnishee is indebted to the debtor as indicated on the garnishment disclosure form. The disclosure is conclusive against the creditor and discharges the garnishee from *127 any further obligation to the creditor other than to retain all nonexempt disposable earnings, indebtedness, money, and property of the debtor that was disclosed.
(c) If the garnishee was served with a garnishment summons before entry of judgment against the debtor by the creditor in the civil action, 270 days after the garnishment summons is served the garnishee is discharged and the garnishee shall return any disposable earnings, indebtedness, money, and property to the debtor.
(d) If the garnishee was served with a garnishment summons after entry of judgment against the debtor by the creditor in the civil action, 180 days after the garnishment summons is served the garnishee is discharged and the garnishee shall return any disposable earnings, other indebtedness, money, and property to the debtor.
(e) If the garnished indebtedness, money, or other property is destroyed without any negligence of the garnishee, the garnishee is discharged of any liability to the creditor for nondelivery of the garnished indebtedness, money, and other property.
(f) The court may, upon motion of an interested person, discharge the garnishee as to any disposable earnings, other indebtedness, money, and property in excess of the amount that may be required to satisfy the creditor’s claim.

Minn.Stat. § 571.79 (1996). Conditions (a) and (b) allow for immediate discharge in the specific circumstances of a garnishee making a disclosure that it either is or is not indebted to the debtor. Such a disclosure is “conclusive against the creditor” and discharges the garnishee. In contrast, conditions for discharge (c) and (d) are not triggered by the contents of the garnishee’s disclosure, but rather by the more general existence of a judgment against the debtor in a civil action by the creditor. If the creditor has obtained a judgment against the debtor, condition (d) effects a discharge of the garnishee 180 days after service of the summons. The two additional discharge provisions are not at issue here.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
559 N.W.2d 124, 1996 Minn. App. LEXIS 1496, 1997 WL 52335, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lynch-v-hetman-minnctapp-1996.