Parscal

The question presented by this appeal is whether an employer’s mandatory contributions, based upon an employee’s hours of work under a collective bargaining agreement, to an employee welfare fund with spendthrift trust provisions are subject to execution under a judgment against the employee for unpaid court-ordered child support.

The following factual-procedural context of the case is uncontroverted.

Painting contractor employers were required under a collective bargaining agreement to pay $4.50 for each hour worked by a union journeyman employee, to appellant Bay Area Painter Trust Funds (the Fund). The money was then placed by the Fund in vacation, holiday, health and welfare, and pension funds under the Fund’s control and subject to a trust indenture’s following provision;

The Trust Indenture also provided:

Defendant Robert E. Parscal was a journeyman painter whose employer or employers had, in consideration of his service, made payment of welfare benefits into the Fund.

In a 1979 marriage dissolution action Robert E. Parscal had agreed, and was ordered by the Contra Costa County Superior Court, to pay his wife, Sally A. Parscal, $600 per month for support of the…