Opinion ID: 1991332
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Heading: Resolution of the Conflict Between Section 252D.1 and Section 904.702.

Text: As our discussion indicates, section 252D.1 encompasses institutional allowances within the types of funds subject to a mandatory income withholding order. On the other hand, the director of a correctional institution has no authority under section 904.702 to deduct monies from an inmate's allowance to pay child support obligations. We think the conflict between these statutes must be resolved in favor of enforcing section 904.702. A general principle of statutory construction assists our analysis: When a general statute is in conflict with a specific one, the more specific statute generally prevails, irrespective of the time of its enactment. Kelly v. State, 525 N.W.2d 409, 411 (Iowa 1994). Here, section 904.702 governs the disbursement of a specific type of payment whereas section 252D.1 is concerned with a wide variety of payments to obligors. Thus, section 904.702, as the more specific statute, prevails in any conflict with section 252D.1. We note that the rationale underlying our decisions in In re Marriage of DeNuys, 543 N.W.2d 894 (Iowa 1996), Bruning v. Swipies, 498 N.W.2d 410 (Iowa 1993), and In re Bagnall's Guardianship, 238 Iowa 905, 29 N.W.2d 597 (1947) is not present here. In those cases, we allowed the recovery of support obligations from funds protected by statute from collection efforts. We observed that these exemption statutes were intended to preserve the protected funds for the person receiving the benefits and his or her spouse and dependents. DeNuys, 543 N.W.2d at 898; Bruning, 498 N.W.2d at 411; Bagnall, 238 Iowa at 940, 29 N.W.2d at 615. We concluded that it would thwart the intended purpose of the exemption statutes to apply them in such as manner as to deny support to the very persons the statutes were designed to protect. Id. In contrast, we discern no purpose in section 904.702 to preserve an inmate's institutional allowance for his or her spouse or children. As already noted, the intended uses of these monies are specified in the statute and they do not include the payment of support obligations.