Indianapolis Litigation

Here at Alerding Castor Hewitt, LLP, one thing that we are called upon to do as business law, SaaS law, and technology counsel for our clients is collect on a judgment.  I have previously posted on other topics in the collections world, which you can find here and here.  Today’s topic is in answer to the question we sometimes get:  how long is my judgment good for?

A decision today by the Indiana Court of Appeals in the estate case of In the Matter of the Unsupervised Estate of Dwight M. Wilson v. Steward, --- N.E.2d ---, cause no. 70A01-1003-EU-104 (Ind. Ct. App. Nov. 15, 2010), answers that question.  The facts are pretty simple:  on July 25, 1989, Wilson was held in contempt for nonpayment of child support and was ordered to pay Steward (his ex-wife) $3670.00 in child support arrearage plus $200 in attorney’s fees.  Wilson was also ordered to assign to Steward the proceeds from a personal injury accident.  Steward failed to comply with the order and, 20 years later, died on May 18, 2009.  Steward then filed a claim against Wilson’s estate on September 10, 2009, for the unpaid money.  The trial court ordered the estate to pay the money to Steward, and the estate appealed.

The Court of Appeals concluded that Steward’s claim was an attempt to enforce a judgment.  As such, it considered whether her claim was barred by Indiana Code §34-11-2-12, which provides that every judgment and decree of a court of record is considered satisfied after 20 years.  The estate, relying on the statute, contended that more than 20 years had passed from the time of the July 25, 1989, order until the claim was filed on September 10, 2009.  The Court of Appeals agreed that this was the case; however, relying on precedent, it noted that the statute is unlike an ordinary statute of limitations in that the statute merely creates a presumption of invalidity and that the party seeking to avail itself of the statute must plead payment.   Because Steward had filed her claim within 6 weeks of the passage of the 20-year period, had asserted nonpayment and the estate had not plead payment, the Court concluded that Steward’s claim was not barred by the statute.

So, the short answer to the question above is that you should try to collect on your judgment within 20 years.  After the passage of that period of time, your judgment will be presumed satisfied, but you might still be able to collect on it depending on how long after the period you wait to collect and what the debtor pleads.  Just don’t wait too long.