Court Opinion

ID: 9530544
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:00:55.214713+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:09.434737
License: Public Domain

WADE, Justice.
I dissent for I think the prevailing opinion reads into the judgment lien statute a provision contrary to its wording and intended meaning and overlooks the intention of the legislature that this statute aid the judgment creditor to collect the judgment and not aid the judgment debtor to avoid payment of his debt, nor make it easy for his transferee to establish a clear title to real property purchased from the judgment debtor.
Section 78-22-1, U.C.A.19S3 provides that “(F)rom the time the judgment is docketed it becomes a lien upon all real property of the judgment debtor, * * * owned by him at the time or by him thereafter acquired * * This, to my mind, is a clear statement with no ambiguity, to the effect that after the judgment is docketed it becomes a lien against all real property of the judgment debtor which he owns at the time of the docketing, or later acquires, to secure the payment of all money which becomes owing under the terms and provisions of such judgment during its lifetime. That statute contains no provision excepting from such lien a judgment debt which was originally only a contingent liability but which, after future instalments became due and owing, became a judgment against the judgment debtor. Nor is there any requirement that the happening of such contingency be determined by the court, or that an additional judgment for a specified amount be entered in order to create a lien against the real property of the judgment debtor. All of such provisions were read into this statute by the prevailing opinion and are not indicated by any wording contained in the statute.
*209The case of Beesley v. Badger,1 referred to in the prevailing opinion does not support or sustain its conclusions. In that case this court affirmed the dismissal of an action on a demurrer to a complaint which alleged that plaintiff had purchased land from defendant who warranted the title thereto. The claimed violation of such warranty was that the defendant’s former wife had obtained a decree of divorce against him which required him to pay alimony and support money in future monthly instalments. There was no claim that any instalment had accrued and was unpaid, either at the time of the conveyance or the time of the commencement of the action. All that case holds is that there was no judgment lien against defendant’s real property since there was no money owing under the judgment. Incidentally, the note in 59 A.L.R.2d 656 cited in the prevailing opinion cites this case as holding in accordance with my contention here and contrary to the conclusions reached in the prevailing opinion.
The prevailing opinion emphasizes the difficulties which this kind of a judgment lien would place on the judgment debtor and his successor in interest in real property. It overlooks that the judgment lien statute was enacted to enable the judgment creditor to collect the judgment, not to make it convenient for the judgment debtor to transfer his real property without paying the judgment lien, nor for the convenience of the purchaser of such property in obtaining a clear title. There is no kind of a judgment where the judgment creditor needs a judgment lien more than in a divorce decree which requires alimony and support money payments to be made in future instalments. The legislature has recognized this difficulty by providing for continuing jurisdiction in the court, and contempt proceedings for failure to pay as •ordered. The public is also interested in such collections, for the failure to collect such instalment payments often places the divorced wife and children on the public for support. There is no kind of a judgment that causes more contests and litigation than the collection of a judgment for future alimony and support money instal-ments.
The fact that in some future instalment of alimony and support money judgments there may be cases where there is no money owing, does not seem to be a good reason why, where money is owing there should not be a lien against judgment debtor’s real property. In ordinary money judgments it is not uncommon for the record to show a judgment although the obligation has been fully paid or otherwise discharged. Also it would not be more difficult for a former husband to keep track of the whereabouts of his former wife, especially if she is raising his children, *210than for the ordinary judgment creditor to keep track of the whereabouts of the judgment debtor. Certainly where she is collecting monthly instalments he would know where to find her even though she had remarried. Usually a divorce decree directs that the monthly instalments be paid to the clerk of the court and where he complies with such direction a record of the payments which he made is readily available. So, I conclude that to make the divorced wife prove that there are unpaid instalments which are owing on a divorce decree, creates a definite hardship on the wife, and that such burden should be upon the husband to show that he has made the payments rather than on her to show otherwise.

. Beesley v. Badger, 66 Utah 194, 240 P. 458.