8
in other words
august7
2014
Ask a Lawyer
By Steven Leskin
Q~My neighbor sued me in small claims
court over a property line dispute. He
said that my new fence was on his prop-
erty. I lost. The judge ordered me to pay
him money for the cost of removing
the fence. I paid the full amount of the
judgment the day we were in court. My
neighbor then refused to sign a “Satis-
faction of Judgment.” What can I do?
A~From a lawyer’s perspective, the pur-
pose of going to court is to obtain a judg-
ment. A judgment is the final result of
the legal process in a particular case. In
Oregon, the “General Judgment” signi-
fies that a case is complete. A judgment
may contain a Money Award or an Or-
der signed by the judge for something to
happen.
A judgment gives the plaintiff
(the party who brought the law suit) the
right to collect the amount specified in
the Money Award. In order to enforce
the Money Award, a plaintiff can gar-
nish the defendant’s wages, or seize his
assets and sell them at a sheriff’s sale.
The plaintiff can also seize a defendant’s
bank accounts.
The right to collect the Money
Award ends when the judgment is paid
in full. Since a judgment is a public doc-
ument, the plaintiff is required by law to
sign a “Satisfaction of Judgment” once
the judgment is paid. This document
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tells the world that the judgment is paid.
Once the Satisfaction of Judgment is
signed by the plaintiff, the plaintiff can-
not continue his or her collection efforts
against the defendant.
In the event the plaintiff refused
to sign a Satisfaction of Judgment, the
defendant can file a motion in the court
in the same case. The motion requests
that the court declare that the judgment
is satisfied. The plaintiff will offer the
court proof of payment. Once the court
finds that the Money Award has been
paid in full, the court will issue its own
Satisfaction of Judgment. This tells the
world that you have paid the judgment
and prevents the plaintiff from taking
any further collection efforts against
you.
Q~I received Social Security benefits. A
few years ago, I got married. I received
a letter from Social Security demanding
that I re pay benefits they paid me since
I got married. I’m still disabled. I do not
understand.
A~I suspect that you receive SSI benefits
from Social Security. SSI benefits are
available to any sick or injured person.
By contrast, Social Security Disability is
available to any sick or injured person
who has worked for more than ten years.
The amount of the Disability payment
is higher that the SSI payment and there
are no asset restrictions on the recipient.
SSI recipients receive a smaller month-
ly benefit and cannot own more than
$2,000 in assets or have other income
coming into their home.
I strongly suspect that you did
not tell Social Security that you mar-
ried and that your husband or wife was
working or had other assets which you
now share.
Your failure to tell Social Se-
curity about your new economic con-
dition, i.e., the marriage, created an
overpayment when your new relation-
ship (and the assets which came with it)
exceeded the SSI asset restrictions for
your household. Now, the Social Secu-
rity Administration wants to collect the
difference between what it was actually
paying you with what it should have
been paying you considering your new
economic circumstances.
I cannot give specific advice
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here, but you should consider actually
going to your local office and confirm-
ing the facts on which the agency is
basing its decision. You can file, if it’s
timely, a Request for Reconsideration to
dispute the facts. You might also discuss
with Social Security a payment plan to
re pay the benefits you should not have
received. You should also discuss with
Social Security what the consequences
will be if you do not re pay the over pay-
ment.
If you think that Social Security
is in error in its factual assessment, then
consider hiring an attorney.
Q~Is there common law marriage in Or-
egon?
A~The simple answer is that there is, in
fact, no common law marriage in Or-
egon.
However, if a couple lives to-
gether and they have a plan for their rela-
tionship, they can go to court to dissolve
their “domestic partnership.” A plan for
the relationship might mean that one of
the party works and the other raises the
kids with the understanding that the as-
sets of the relationship will support the
couple in retirement.
While that sounds simple to
prove in court, it’s not. Most couples do
not discuss this, let alone write it out.
The court will look to the actual facts
of the relationship to determine what
the agreement of the parties was, if any.
Unlike in a marriage, if the court finds
that there was no partnership plan, one
spouse may find that they are not entitled
to spousal support, or to a share of the
assets, or the retirement accounts (like
the 401K).
There are no legal benefits or
consequences to simply living together
even if the couple is (falsely) holding
themselves out as “husband” and “wife.”
There are no legal benefits to that ar-
rangement.
The easiest way to think of this
is to consider a business partnership.
Suppose two people go into business to-
gether and the business fails. Who is go-
ing to get what? If there is a written part-
nership agreement, it’s easy to determine
who gets the assets and how the debt will
be distributed. If there is no partnership
agreement, the court will look at the
facts of the business relationship to dis-
tribute the assets and debt in the event of
a dispute.
The act of marriage provides a
rational, somewhat predictable manner
to divide the assets and debts in the event
the relationship fails. There are laws and
cases to provide the court with direction
how to dissolve a marriage. The act of
marriage provides protection to both
parties. Without a marriage, the par-
ties will need to convince the court that
there was in fact a domestic partnership
(as opposed to just living together), and
what that plan was. And, this is going to
be especially difficult because it’s not
likely that the couple wrote out a plan on
which the court could look at to deter-
mine the couple’s actual intentions.
That’s the long answer. There
is no common law marriage. However,
to mitigate against the harsh effect that
might have on one party to a marriage,
that party can claim a domestic partner-
ship exists. The best safeguard against
a grossly inequitable dissolution of the
relationship, absent a written domestic
partnership agreement, is actually mar-
riage.
Steven Leskin is an attorney in
North Portland. He has been in practice
since 1992. You can submit a question
to him through www.StevenLeskin.com
or through the Vernonia’s Voice website.
The next Vernonia Area Chamber of Commerce Meeting
will be held at New Hong Kong Restaurant
669 Mist Drive
Tuesday, August 12 at 6:30 PM
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