I need garnishment info in Kansas

[kaeley]

I need to find out if it is legal to obtain a judgment and garnishment in a civil case in Kansas if the defendant has never been served papers of any kind by the court. There was an attempt to serve a notice to appear at a former address, but serving did not ever actually occur. Thank you.

 

[JETX]

Yes, service can be done by several methods. For example, if the defendant cannot be located by 'normal' methods, then the service can be done 'by publication'. This normally requires that a notice (usually in the classifieds under legal notices) be published for a specific period of time. Then, if the defendant doesn't respond, he is considered served and the plaintiff is granted a default judgment. Once the judgnment is rendered and the normal allowed appeal deadline has passed, the creditor can enforce the judgement as allowed by state law.

 

[kaeley]

Thanks for your response. If none of those methods of service were carried out, is the judgment still valid? And do you know how long we have to file an appeal? Thanks!

 

[JETX]

This thread originally started with a question about a judgment without 'being served'. It seems to now be growing into a 'what if' or 'how about' discussion.

In the sake of brevity and in an effort to really help you, what say we 'cut to the chase'.
1) How, if at all, were you served?
2) Were you aware of the lawsuit before the judgment was rendered?
3) If you were aware, why did you not defend yourself??
4) Do you dispute the claim made by the Plaintiff?? Why??
5) Did you owe the Plaintiff the amount claimed??
6) Do you owe the plaintiff anything???
7) When was the judgment rendered??
8) How much is the judgment for???
9) What county and what state (see below)???

Until now, your question was generic and not affected by location, but now you ask about appeal. Since you didn't tell us where the judgment was made ('See the red text at the top of the screen???), I can't answer you.

 

[kaeley]

Answers

I did actually mention the state in original message, it is Kansas.

This is a lawsuit against my husband. He was never served at all.

We were aware of the lawsuit before the judgment was rendered, but the last we knew we thought the case had been dismissed. The case was filed against a phone company and my husband as co-defendants, and it turns out only the case against the phone co. had been dismissed.

We dispute the claim by the plaintiff because it is total BS and he is just doing it to be petty because he is a power hungry control freak who is jealous of my husband. We do not owe him a dime, in fact he owes my husband for back wages and items that were not returned to him after employment was severed.

The judgment was rendered in the beginning of June and my husband's employer received garnishment orders last week and that was the first we knew of any action being taken in this case.

The judgment is for $15,000 in Douglas County, KS.

According to the person I spoke to at the county clerk's office, a notice to appear was attempted to be served at our previous address but not delivered because we no longer lived there. Funny how they had our correct address and knew where to send the garnishment order but they "just couldn't find us" when papers about the lawsuit needed to be served.

Thanks for your help.

 

[JETX]

Your original post said, "I need to find out if it is legal to obtain a judgment and garnishment in a civil case in Kansas". This does not mean that YOU are in Kansas, only that the judgment was rendered there. That is why I asked where YOU are (there are a lot of cases where the judgment was rendered in one state and being enforced in another).

The Constitution grants each of us the right to face our accusers and that is one of the purposes of proper court notice, so that the Defendant is given sufficient opportunity to defend himself. The fact that you were aware of the lawsuit and was mistaken in its status doesn't alter the fact that you had the opportunity of defense. So, in the eyes of the court, your failure is not the courts or the Plaintiffs concern. And if you felt so strongly that the claims being made were "total BS", your chance to fight them was at trial where all the issues could be heard.

At this late date (and assuming the appeal clock has tolled), I see only two options:
1) Negotiate a payment plan and pay the judgment, OR
2) Contact the original court and file a "Motion to Vacate" the judgment. The court would then hold a hearing on your motion and listen to why you feel that the judgment should be set aside. If the court agrees, they will set a new trial date for your side to be heard.

What did the court clerk say when you asked for proof of service. I can't believe she only told you part of the story of 'attempted service' without telling you what service WAS made. Also, it is not unusual to find a Defendants valid address after the judgment, since only then does the Judgment Creditor has a permissable purpose for running a credit report on you.

 

[kaeley]

Thanks for the info.

I guess we have learned a hard hard lesson about being naive and assuming things. Do you have any idea how long you have to appeal a decision? Probably only 10 days or so. Also, do you know if we file to Motion to Vacate and a hearing is set, will the garnishment order be suspended or will it have to be upheld? (We do have an appointment with a local attorney on Tuesday, but this is driving me crazy so I'm trying to find out all I can now.) Thank you. Sorry for the misunderstanding about the state, I didn't realize I hadn't made it clear that *I* am in Kansas!

 

[JETX]

As I understand it, Kansas requires a notice of appeal within 10 days.

Since most garnishment proceedings allow you the chance to dispute or challenge them, I don't think that anything would happen before your Tuesday meeting with an attorney (unless this was bank account garnishment, where the bank freezes the funds upon service). And if a bank garnishment, the difference between Monday and Tuesday is pretty minor.

Best of luck... and keep us apprised.

 

[kaeley]

You have been very helpful.

I sincerely appreciate your replies, it has helped me understand things a little better. I feel pretty confident that things will go our way when we have the opportunity to appear before a judge. To make a long story as short as I can, the plaintiff in this case asked my husband to combine their businesses together, and as part of that my husband signed over a phone # to him. Well, the phone # actually belonged to my father-in-law and he told my husband to get the phone # assigned back to him. So we did, and had it back for about 10 days when the plaintiff realized we had taken it back, and then he contacted the phone company and got the number back in HIS name. Well, my father in law contacted the phone co and told them that the phone # was his and my husband didn't have authorization to sign it over to begin with, so the plaintiff shouldn't have it now, but the phone co said that since my husband was his son that gave him authority to transfer the line to the plaintiff. Well, that doesn't make sense, because if people could be authorized to do things just because they are children of someone, there would be a lot of crazy stuff happening! But the plaintiff had a lawyer involved and my FIL didn't, so the phone co sided with the plaintiff and gave him back the #.

Here's where the lawsuit comes in, he is suing the phone co and my DH for $15,000 in lost revenue for the 10 days he was without the phone number. First of all, if we were capable of making $15,000 in 10 days, we would never have even considered combining our business with his to begin with! And 2nd, it was over Christmas which is the slowest time of the year for our type of business.

Well, the court dismissed the case against the phone co in a journal entry in October, and we found out about that in March when we refinanced our house and found out that the plaintiff had attempted to place a lien on our house (no judgment at all at that point). That got straightened out and we thought since the paperwork we obtained said the case was dismissed that there was nothing more to it. As it turns out, the case against us was still in effect, and...well, you know the rest.

So as you can see, it really is just a bunch of BS!

Thanks again for your help.