Can a case be judged or decided even though the respondent was not there and knew nothing about hearing?
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Can a case be judged or decided even though the respondent was not there and knew nothing about hearing?
My husband had this case that he went to a clinic. It filed a small claim against him 12 years ago and the hearing was set last month/ However, he doesn’t know about it because we moved to another city. Now we just only learned it when his paycheck was garnished for about $100 and this will be every paycheck for the next 39 paychecks. Since they sent that decision to my husband’s company, how come the company did not send a subpoena to his work so that he would know about the hearing?
Asked on July 13, 2012 under Bankruptcy Law, Ohio
Answers:
M.T.G., Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 11 years ago | Contributor
What you are saying here is that your husband was not given proper notice of the hearing and that a judgement was taken "in default" and then his wages garnished. Now, a party can be greanted a default judgement if they show that they properly served the other party. If the address they served was an imporper address - and you can show that they could have reasonably knew that - then you can make a motion to "vacate" the default. Generally you have to have what is called a "meritorious defense" in the matter. Please get some help here. I think that there may also be a statute of limitations issue with the debt. Good luck.
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