Hoyman v. Coffin

• Citation: 976 P.2d 311
• Decision Date: 11 June 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97CA0559,97CA0559
• Parties: 98 CJ C.A.R. 3010 John HOYMAN, and John Hoyman, P.C., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Kristi J. COFFIN, and Kristi J. Coffin, P.C., Defendants-Appellants. . II
• Court: Court of Appeals of Colorado

Page 311

976 P.2d 311

98 CJ C.A.R. 3010

John HOYMAN, and John Hoyman, P.C., Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Kristi J. COFFIN, and Kristi J. Coffin, P.C., Defendants-Appellants.

No. 97CA0559.

Colorado Court of Appeals, Div. II.

June 11, 1998.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 20, 1998.

Certiorari Denied May 10, 1999.

Baker & Hostetler, LLP, Phillip S. Lorenzo, Rebecca C. Lovell, Mary P. Birk, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiffs-Appellees

Kristi J. Coffin, P.C., Kristi J. Coffin, Greeley, Colorado, for Defendants-Appellants

Opinion by Judge NEY.

In this garnishment proceeding, Kristi J. Coffin (debtor) and Kristi J. Coffin, P.C. (Corporation), appeal the judgment entered in the amount of $24,916.65, plus interest, in favor of plaintiffs, John Hoyman and John Hoyman, P.C., and also awarding plaintiffs their attorney fees and costs. Defendants assert that the trial court erred because it lacked jurisdiction to hear plaintiffs' traverse garnished 100 percent of debtor's earnings after the garnishment period had expired, improperly pierced the corporate veil to enter judgment against the Corporation, failed to reduce the total judgment against debtor by the amount awarded in the traverse, and improperly awarded attorney fees and costs. We affirm.

Debtor was employed as an attorney for plaintiffs from 1993 to 1994, when she established the Corporation. Plaintiffs subsequently brought an action against debtor and, in April 1996, received a judgment against her in the amount of $153,929.03, for conversion and money had and received. All but $34,494.70 of the judgment had been satisfied prior to the garnishment.

In June 1996, plaintiffs served a writ of continuing garnishment on the Corporation to collect on the outstanding balance of the judgment from debtor's wages between June 27, 1996, and September 25, 1996.

On August 6, 1996, the Corporation answered the writ, stating that it owed debtor no wages for the garnishment period. Unaware that an answer had been filed, plaintiffs filed a motion for default judgment against the Corporation. After discovering that the Corporation had timely filed an answer, plaintiffs traversed on August 27, 1996, one day out of time. A traverse hearing began on September 26, 1996, and was continued until October 31, 1996.

On September 26, 1996, debtor testified that she had not received, nor was owed, any wages from the Corporation since prior to the garnishment period and did not know when she would next be paid.

At the continuation of the hearing on October 31, 1996, it was revealed that on the morning of the hearing on September 26, 1996, the day after the writ of continuing garnishment had expired, debtor was paid $22,000 by the Corporation. Later that day, after the hearing, debtor received an additional $2,916.65 from the Corporation.

The trial court found that the funds paid to debtor on September 26 were owed as wages to the debtor during the time of the garnishment. The trial court also found that the Corporation had colluded with its employee, the debtor, and had been deceitful in its handling of its accounts during the garnishment period in an ongoing effort to hinder collection of the judgment, and had thereby attempted to defraud the judgment creditor.

Based on the findings made at the October 31 hearing, the trial court entered judgment awarding plaintiffs the amount of money withdrawn from the Corporation on the day of the hearing, $24,916.65, plus eight percent interest; $581.37 for fees received by debtor during the garnishment period; $4,122.50 for attorney fees; and $658.61 for costs. The court ordered debtor to pay into the registry of the court any future fees of a nature similar to those garnished.

I.

Debtor and the Corporation assert that the trial court erred in holding the traverse hearing because plaintiffs had failed to file their traverse within the time permitted, and therefore, the trial court did not have jurisdiction to conduct the hearing. We disagree.

Subject matter jurisdiction concerns the court's authority to deal with the class of cases in which it renders judgment. It may be raised at any time during an action, including appeal. Once properly invoked, a court's jurisdiction is not divested by a party's failure to comply with a statutory requirement. People v. Grell, 950 P.2d 660 (Colo.App.1997).

The twenty-day time for filing a traverse after the filing of the answer under C.R.C.P. 103 § 8(a) is akin to a statutorily-created procedural requirement. The failure to file within the allotted period is not a jurisdictional defect that would divest the trial court of subject matter jurisdiction, but a procedural defect that subjects the traverse to dismissal at the discretion of the trial court. People v. Grell, supra.

As a general rule, non-jurisdictional issues not raised in the trial court are deemed waived and will not be considered on appeal. Paine, Webber, Jackson & Curtis, Inc. v. Adams, 718 P.2d 508 (Colo.1986). Hence, because defendants...