New Jersey Attorney Law Review Blog

  What happens when a judgment creditor holding a judgment against only one spouse levies on their joint bank account and moves for turnover of 100% of the funds in the account - should the husband and wife kiss all the money goodbye?   Not necessarily. The New Jersey Multiple Party Deposit Account Act (“NJMPDAA”), N.J.S.A. § 17:16I-1, et seq., which governs “multiple party deposit accounts” (“MPDAs”), including joint bank accounts, provides in relevant part: Unless a contrary intent is manifested by the terms of the contract, or the deposit agreement, or there is other clear and convincing evidence of a different intent at the time the account is created:  a. A joint account belongs, during the lifetime of all parties, to the parties in proportion to the net contributions by each to the sums on deposit. In the absence of proof of net contributions, the account belongs in equal shares to all parties having present right of withdrawal.  N.J.S.A. § 17:16I-4a.  

One of my clients is currently involved in bitter litigation with a judgment creditor who is trying to wrestle away her ability to hold onto a small hair salon that she incorporated several years ago and which operates in Ridgewood, New Jersey. In this particular instance, the judgment creditor claims to have perfected its judgment lien against my client's stock ownership in the hair salon by virtue of a levy made by the Bergen County Sheriff some several years before my client filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, and is objecting to a proposed settlement between my client and the Chapter 7 bankruptcy Trustee that would enable my client to purchase the Trustee's claims against the stock.   My client,  currently a debtor in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case pending in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey, disputes the judgment creditor's claim and maintains that the judgment creditor is, at most, an unsecured creditor who failed to