Won judgement against two defendents, one left town, what to do?

Won judgement against two defendents, one left town, what to do?

Richard Lee	6/23/2004 11:15:39 AM
In a small claims civil suit, I was awarded a sum of money against 2 defendents for wrongful possession of property (they wouldn't give me back my stuff and it caused damages). I will refer to the codefendents as "primary" and "secondary". The primary was the one who actually held my property and wouldn't give it back when asked. The secondary's role was that he supported that at the time of denial knowing the full situation and benefited from the use of my property along with the primary. Here's the problem. The primary defendent can be located and so garmishment can be administered. But the secondary defendent cannot be located any more. 1. Can the plaintiff decide what proportion of the award is due from each defendent? If so, do guidelines exist? In the judgement record, the names of the defendents appear along with the judgement amount, pre and post interest, costs, prep fees but not about how much is owed by each debtor. At first 50/50 intuitively seems what was implied but I wonder if that is the rule or merely the rule of thumb. The idea here is that the primary defendent, who is more responsible anyways, pay the majority while a significantly smaller claimed on the secondary, who cannot be located any more, can be written off. 2. If one files a motion, have judges been known to allow one to drop the suit against a codefendents? The idea here is to have the primary, the one I can locate, pay the entire award. Any opinions will be appreciated.



"McGyver"	6/23/2004 10:15:31 AM
"Richard Lee" <r@r.com> wrote in message news:e5pid0177na1332pjdhs2250q0pnmuimu9@4ax.com... In a small claims civil suit, I was awarded a sum of money against 2 defendents for wrongful possession of property (they wouldn't give me back my stuff and it caused damages). I will refer to the codefendents as "primary" and "secondary". The primary was the one who actually held my property and wouldn't give it back when asked. The secondary's role was that he supported that at the time of denial knowing the full situation and benefited from the use of my property along with the primary. Here's the problem. The primary defendent can be located and so garmishment can be administered. But the secondary defendent cannot be located any more. 1. Can the plaintiff decide what proportion of the award is due from each defendent? If so, do guidelines exist? In the judgement record, the names of the defendents appear along with the judgement amount, pre and post interest, costs, prep fees but not about how much is owed by each debtor. At first 50/50 intuitively seems what was implied but I wonder if that is the rule or merely the rule of thumb. The idea here is that the primary defendent, who is more responsible anyways, pay the majority while a significantly smaller claimed on the secondary, who cannot be located any more, can be written off. 2. If one files a motion, have judges been known to allow one to drop the suit against a codefendents? The idea here is to have the primary, the one I can locate, pay the entire award. Wish granted. Each defendant owes the entire judgment, unless the judgment itself says otherwise. First, wait until the appeal period has passed. Then attach or garnish or somehow execute the entire judgment against the defendant you can find. Add all interest that's allowed and add the fee you will have to pay the sheriff to garnish. Don't worry about who should owe what share. They can settle that between them. The one that pays off may have a right to sue the other for contribution. That's not your concern. After you have collected in full, you will no longer have the right to execute the judgment against anyone. McGyver



	6/23/2004 1:19:53 PM
Richard Lee wrote: In a small claims civil suit, I was awarded a sum of money against 2 defendents for wrongful possession of property (they wouldn't give me I don't know what state you're in so it would be hard to say. You maybe could ask the judge for a "hearing in aid of execution" and then go from there. If you are granted a hearing, there will be a process for informing the defendant(s) that there is/are hearing(s). People called "process servers" usually do this, but your state might have a simplified procedure for small claims (again I wouldn't know since your state is still a mystery). Process serving can be interesting since you just can't have a hearing before the people involved are informed of it. So people will sometimes go to great lengths to avoid "being served". This has produced many amusing stories about people trying to avoid "service" and the process servers who are trying to serve them. I am not a lawyer. I do not even see email sent to this address, due to past DOS attacks. If you wish to respond, do so through this newsgroup.



tomG	6/24/2004 8:21:03 AM
On Wed, 23 Jun 2004 11:15:39 GMT, Richard Lee wrote: In a small claims civil suit, I was awarded a sum of money against 2 defendents for wrongful possession of property (they wouldn't give me back my stuff and it caused damages). I will refer to the codefendents as "primary" and "secondary". <snip> The primary defendent can be located and so garmishment can be administered. But the secondary defendent cannot be located any more. 1. Can the plaintiff decide what proportion of the award is due from each defendent? No. The effect of the judgment is to make 100% immediately due in full from the primary defendant -and- 100% immediately due in full from the secondary defendant. You are free to collect as much or as little as you want from the primary defendant and as much or as little as you want from the secondary defendant, so long as you don't actually collect more than 100% from both defendants combined. If so, do guidelines exist? In the judgement record, the names of the defendents appear along with the judgement amount, pre and post interest, costs, prep fees but not about how much is owed by each debtor. At first 50/50 intuitively seems what was implied but I wonder if that is the rule or merely the rule of thumb. The idea here is that the primary defendent, who is more responsible anyways, pay the majority while a significantly smaller claimed on the secondary, who cannot be located any more, can be written off. 2. If one files a motion, have judges been known to allow one to drop the suit against a codefendents? You don't "drop the suit" -after- having recovered a judgment. All that is left then to drop is collection proceedings, and you are free to drop collection proceedings against either or both defendants at any time. The idea here is to have the primary, the one I can locate, pay the entire award. Fine, but all you need to do to accomplish that is to pursue the "primary" and not pursue the "secondary." No need to drop anything except aggressive efforts to collect from the secondary.



Richard Lee	6/24/2004 8:52:30 PM
Fine, but all you need to do to accomplish that is to pursue the "primary" and not pursue the "secondary." No need to drop anything except aggressive efforts to collect from the secondary. Yeah, okay. I understand now. Thanks everyone who added their insight.

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