Citizens Bank of Ashburn v. Shingler, 69603
| Decision Date | 22 February 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 69603,69603 |
| Citation | 173 Ga.App. 511,326 S.E.2d 861 |
| Parties | CITIZENS BANK OF ASHBURN v. SHINGLER. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
J. Harvey Davis, C. Paul Bowden, Ocilla, for appellant.
John R. Rogers, Ashburn, Rob Reinhardt, Tifton, for appellee.
Judgment debtor Martha Shingler traversed a garnishment proceeding instituted by the Citizens Bank of Ashburn against Great Southern Federal on the basis that the accounts in garnishee's possession were individual retirement accounts exempt from garnishment pursuant to OCGA § 18-4-22. The trial court sustained Shingler's traverse and Citizens Bank appeals.
The Congress, in establishing individual retirement accounts, 26 U.S.C. § 408(a), under the umbrella of the comprehensive Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), Pub.L. 93-406, 88 Stat. 829, provided that there was to be no alienation or assignment of benefits. 29 USC § 1056(d)(1); see Mallory v. Mallory, 179 N.J.Super. 556, 432 A.2d 950, 952 (1981). The assignment-alienation prohibition contained in ERISA extends to involuntary assignments such as garnishments. Commercial Mtg. Ins. v. Citizens Nat. Bank, 526 F.Supp. 510, 518 (1981). Furthermore, ERISA's assignment-alienation prohibition pre-empts otherwise relevant state law as it applies to claims by commercial creditors in non-bankruptcy situations against ERISA-qualified benefit plans. Id.; see also Mallory, supra; Matter of Goff, 706 F.2d 574, 584 (5th Cir.1983). Thus federal law preempts OCGA § 18-4-22 and mandates a finding that the individual retirement accounts possessed by garnishee are exempt from garnishment by appellant, a commercial creditor, in this non-bankruptcy situation.
The trial court did not err by sustaining appellee's traverse to appellant's affidavit of garnishment.
Judgment affirmed.
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In re Komet, Bankruptcy No. 88-50379-C.
...aff'd 594 F.2d 314 (2d Cir.1979); Ball v. Revised Retirement Plan, 522 F.Supp. 718 (D.Colo.1981); see also Citizens Bank of Ashburn v. Shingler, 173 Ga.App. 511, 326 S.E.2d 861 (1985); Christ Hospital v. Greenwald, 82 Ill.App.3d 1024, 38 Ill.Dec. 469, 403 N.E.2d 700 (1980); Biles v. Biles, ......
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...stating that the affidavit is untrue or legally insufficient”) (emphasis added). The State relies on Citizens Bank of Ashburn v. Shingler, 173 Ga.App. 511, 326 S.E.2d 861 (1985), which upheld a trial court decision sustaining the debtor's traverse of the creditor's affidavit of garnishment ......
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...S.E.2d 861 (Ga.App. 1985), which applied the anti-alienation protections of 29 U.S.C. § 1056(d)(1) to an individual retirement account. Id. at 861-62. court finds the former set of cases to be inapplicable because their analyses of the anti-alienation provision involved an active ERISA pens......
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...18–4–93, which provides for a hearing within ten days, and cited the Georgia Court of Appeals' decision in Citizens Bank of Ashburn v. Shingler, 173 Ga.App. 511, 326 S.E.2d 861 (1985), in support. The Court rejected this argument, pointing out that Section 18–4–93 expressly limits the groun......