Court Opinion

ID: 9746374
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 14:13:33.630431+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:12.502877
License: Public Domain

FLAHERTY, Justice,
dissenting.
The statutes applicable to this case clearly direct that Mr. Hollman’s pension fund be exempted from attachment, and *295the majority chooses to ignore these statutes, as it also did in Young v. Young, 507 Pa. 40, 488 A.2d 264 (1985), apparently on the theory that it would be inequitable to do otherwise.
In Young v. Young, supra., a majority permitted the attachment of a pension fund based on an in-personam court-ordered support payment, reduced to a judgment for arrearages, even though the applicable statute, 53 P.S. § 35101, et. seq., plainly said that the fund was not attachable. I and two other members of the Court dissented. In the present case, Mr. Hollman’s pension fund is governed by a different statute, 42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8124(b)(1)(vii), although that statute too provides that Wade’s fund is unattachable.1
The cases are different, however, in that the present case, unlike Young, does not involve an in personam order requiring Mr. Hollman to pay support, but rather, an in rem order for arrearages on a contract of support.2 The significance of this distinction is that if the present case had involved an in personam order, it would arguably have been controlled by Young, but in the absence of an in personam order it is not. Since Young is not controlling *296and since there is no statutory exception to the unattachability of the fund, Mr. Hollman’s pension fund clearly should not be attached.3
The majority is troubled by the fact that prior to the Divorce Code of 1980, there was no method by which a support agreement could be incorporated into a divorce decree, thus leaving persons like Mrs. Hollman to a contract remedy on her separation agreement rather than an action to enforce a court decree. In other words, Mrs. Hollman’s remedy in this case would be to bring an assumpsit action on the separation agreement and to seek enforcement in Florida, her former husband’s current residence. Admittedly, such a course of action is more cumbersome and perhaps more expensive than attaching the pension fund based on an in rem order, but that is what the pre-1980 law requires.
Like the majority, I too am troubled by this statutory scheme, but that is the statutory scheme applicable to this case, and it is our duty, barring constitutional shortcomings in the relevant statutes, to uphold and apply it. If there is, from some points of view, an injustice in such a method of collecting arrearages in support payments, it is an injustice which the legislature has distinctly instructed us to perform. Thus, in the absence of a constitutional challenge, I *297would leave the wisdom of the pre-1980 divorce law to the legislature, where it belongs, and affirm.
ZAPPALA, J., joins this dissenting opinion.

. The applicable statute provides:
The following personal property of the judgment debtor shall be exempt from attachment or execution on a judgment:
* * * A A *
(b) Retirement funds and accounts.—
(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), the following money or other property of the judgment debtor shall be exempt from attachment or execution on a judgment:
******
(vii) Any pension or annuity, whether by way of a gratuity or otherwise, granted or paid by any private corporation or employer to a retired employee under a plan or contract which provides that the pension or annuity shall not be assignable.
42 Pa.C.S.A. § 8124(b)(1)(vii). (Emphasis added.) Since Mr. Hollman’s fund is paid by a private employer and is not assignable, the plain language of the statute requires that it be exempt from attachment.

. An in personam order was entered in "Hollman II,” ordering Mr. Hollman to pay $300 a month, but that order is not the subject of this appeal. At issue in this appeal is the in rem judgment for the arrearages.

. A statutory exception to the prohibition against attachment appears at 48 P.S. § 136, but it does not apply to the Hollman case. The statute provides:
Whenever any court of competent jurisdiction has made an order or entered a decree or judgment against any husband requiring him to pay any sum or sums for the support of his wife or children or both, the court may issue the appropriate writ of execution against any property, real or personal, belonging to the defendant to enforce said order, decree, or judgment, and the said court may issue a writ of attachment execution, or writ in the nature of attachment execution, against any money or property to which said husband is entitled____
Act of May 10, 1921, P.L. 434, § 1, 48 P.S. 136. (Emphasis added.) The statutory exception found in this section does not apply to Hollman because Hollman does not involve an in personam order, but instead an in rem order, and because there is no husband and wife, but rather a former husband and wife.