Wage Garnishment Exemption Asserted By Both Spouses: Can There Be Two Heads Of Household In One Family?
A husband and his wife are jointly liable on a real estate bank loan and could not afford to continue payments. After they stopped making monthly payments the bank sued both spouses to collect the full loan balance. Both spouses worked and were concerned that the bank would garnish their wages after getting a judgment.
In Florida, a judgment creditor cannot garnish wages of a debtor who is head of household. In a traditional family setting only one spouse can be head of household where there are minor children. The general rule is that the higher earning spouse provides the majority of support for the children and is head of household, and the lesser earning spouse is vulnerable to wage garnishment. In this particular case, both spouses thought they were head of household in their family.
The facts in this case were unusual. Theirs was a second marriage. Each spouse had children from a prior marriage. Because they worked at jobs in different Florida cities each spouse lived in their own house with one or more of their own children. Each spouse supported their respective children in their homes. Each spouse owned their own home individually. Each spouse contended that they should be head of household and exempt from wage garnishment. Can there be two heads of household, exempt from wage garnishment, in the same family?
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