Dixie Nat. Bank v. Chase, 84-2826
| Decision Date | 01 April 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 84-2826,84-2826 |
| Citation | 11 Fla. L. Weekly 765,485 So.2d 1353 |
| Parties | 11 Fla. L. Weekly 765 DIXIE NATIONAL BANK, Appellant, v. Stephen W. CHASE, II, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Kimbrell, Hamann, Jennings, Womack, Carlson & Kniskern and John E. Phelan, Miami, for appellant.
Chulock & Chulock and Robert Y. Chulock, Miami, for appellee.
Before BARKDULL, HUBBART and NESBITT, JJ.
This is an appeal by a garnishee bank from an adverse final judgment entered in a garnishment proceeding after a non-jury trial. The central issue presented for review is the extent of a garnishee bank's liability to a garnishor creditor when (1) a proper writ of garnishment is served on the garnishee bank, and (2) an incomplete answer is thereafter filed which omits one of two accounts held at the bank by the defendant debtor, but which answer is later corrected by an amended answer. We hold that under Section 77.06(1), Florida Statutes (1983), the garnishee bank is liable to the garnishor creditor for all monies deposited in the omitted bank account between (a) the time the writ of garnishment is served, and (b) the time the garnishee bank files an amended answer disclosing the existence of the omitted bank account. We accordingly affirm the final judgment under review which correctly reached this result.
The relevant facts of this case are as follows. On July 14, 1983, Stephen W. Chase II ["garnishor creditor Chase"] filed a motion for a writ of garnishment against Jim Gore ["defendant debtor Gore"] in the Circuit Court for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit in and for Dade County, Florida. The motion requested that the clerk of the circuit court issue a writ of garnishment directed to the Dixie National Bank of Dade County ["garnishee Dixie Bank"] and stated that: (1) on June 2, 1983, the garnishor creditor Chase received a final judgment against the defendant debtor Gore in the amount of $48,473.50, and (2) the said defendant has visible property on which levy could be made to satisfy the above judgment.
On July 14, 1983, the same day the above motion was filed, the clerk of the circuit court issued a writ of garnishment directing the garnishee Dixie Bank to file and serve an answer within 20 days
On July 15, 1983, at 3:13 P.M., the above writ of garnishment was served on the garnishee Dixie Bank.
On July 20, 1983, the garnishee Dixie Bank served by mail its answer to the writ of garnishment on the garnishor creditor Chase which answer was filed with the circuit court five days later. The answer stated:
"Garnishee is indebted to the defendant, JIM GORE, in the amount of $32.86 and it was so indebted to said [d]efendant at the time of service of this writ, at the time of this [a]nswer and between such period and it knows of no person indebted to said defendant, or who may have any of the effects of said defendant in their hands."
This disclosure was based on a bank account in the name of "Jimmy Gore" held at the garnishee Dixie Bank; the signator card for this account was signed by "Jimmy Gore" as sole signator and owner of the account; no other disclosure was made of any other account at the said bank--although, without dispute, the defendant debtor Gore held another bank account with the garnishee Dixie Bank entitled "Diamond M," account no. 0210001735. The signator card for this account was signed--like the first account--by "Jimmy Gore" as sole signator and owner of the account. The garnishee Dixie Bank had failed to discover and list the latter account in its answer due to an error in its records search. It further appears that the garnishee Dixie Bank garnished or put a hold on the disclosed bank account upon its service of the above answer, but failed to take the same action with reference to the omitted bank account.
After a reply was filed to this answer, the garnishor creditor Chase secured the service of a second writ of garnishment on the garnishee Dixie Bank which was identical to the first writ except that writ referred to the defendant as "Jim (Jimmy) Gore or any business entities or accounts in which he has an interest or over which he has signatory authority." This writ was issued on February 17, 1984, by the clerk of the circuit court and was served on the garnishee Dixie Bank on February 22, 1984 at 3:15 P.M. On March 6, 1984, the garnishee Dixie Bank served an answer by mail to this second writ of garnishment which was for all relevant purposes identical to its answer to the first writ of garnishment--except that the amount now on hand in the disclosed bank account had shrunk from $32.86 to $5.04. Again, the answer failed to disclose the existence of the omitted bank account held by the defendant debtor Gore at the said bank. This answer was subsequently filed two days later with the clerk of the circuit court.
On April 13, 1984, subsequent to the filing of a reply to the above-stated answer, the garnishee Dixie Bank filed with the clerk of the circuit court and served by mail an amended answer to the above two writs of garnishment in which it disclosed for the first time the existence of the above-stated, omitted bank account held at the bank by the defendant debtor Gore. The amended answer to the first writ of garnishment incorporated the original answer which had been previously served on July 20, 1983, and added the following:
"At the time of the service of the [w]rit of [g]arnishment (July 15, 1983) or at any time between the service of the [w]rit and the time of the filing [serving] of the [a]nswer (July 20, 1983), [g]arnishee was additionally indebted to [d]efendant in the amount of $275.00, as reflected in account titled Diamond 'M' under [a]ccount [n]o. 21000173500."
The amended answer to the second writ of garnishment incorporated the original answer which had previously been served on March 6, 1984, and added the following:
"At the time of the service of the [w]rit of [g]arnishment (February 22, 198 ) or at any time between the service of the [w]rit and the time of the filing of the [a]nswer (March 6, 198 ), [g]arnishee was additionally indebted to [d]efendant in the amount of $65.63, as reflected in account titled Diamond 'M' under [a]ccount [n]o. 21000173500."
For the first time, the garnishee Dixie Bank garnished or put a hold on this heretofore omitted bank account of the defendant debtor Gore.
Unfortunately for the parties to this appeal--and herein lies the immediate reason for the subject controversy--the defendant debtor Gore deposited a total of $13,870.61 in the above omitted bank account, and then withdrew most of it, between the time the first writ of garnishment was served on the garnishee Dixie Bank [July 15, 1983] and the time the amended answer was served [April 13, 1984] which disclosed the existence of the omitted account. The defendant debtor Gore had only $65.63 in the omitted account by the time the bank's amended answer was served and the account garnished.
The cause was tried below as a non-jury matter in which the above-stated facts were established. The trial court thereupon entered a final judgment in garnishment in favor of the garnishor creditor Chase and against the garnishee Dixie Bank in the amount of $13,870.61....
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...obligation imposed by the garnishment statute. See § 77.06(3), Fla. Stat. As stated by the Third District in Dixie National Bank v. Chase, 485 So.2d 1353, 1356 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986): [T]his statutory scheme contemplates full disclosure in the garnishee's answer of all debts owed by the garnish......
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