Court Opinion

ID: 9585602
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:02:07.593346+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:21:30.000865
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
On motion for rehearing appellants insist that we have misconstrued and misapplied 42 USC 452, § 407 by failing to give proper consideration to the fact that O’Kelley is incarcerated and therefore his support and maintenance are provided by the state. We find nothing in the statute nor any case interpreting it which supports the creation of an exception to the anti-garnishment feature of 42 USC § 407 when the recipient is incarcerated and has his daily living needs provided by the state. Appellants have directed our attention to Cartledge v. Miller, 457 FSupp. 1146 (1978) and urged us to follow the reasoning of that case. In Cartledge the court found an "implied exception” to the anti-assignment provisions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 ("ERISA”) for family support payments mandated by a state court. We are unable to bring within the bounds of the Cartledge rationale the instant case involving satisfaction of a judgment in a wrongful death action. We are not indifferent to the personal and policy implications of precluding social security benefits from garnishment in circumstances such as we have here, but for this court to provide the relief requested would amount to a drastic reformation of the statute which clearly is beyond our authority.

Motion for rehearing denied.