United Healthcare Workerswest v. Borsos (In re Borsos)

A reversal on appeal voided a money judgment on which wages had been garnished. The garnishee wants his money back.

The backstory is a testosterone-fueled vendetta by Service Employees International Union (“SEIU”) against former officers of a SEIU local who lost a power struggle with SEIU and, after SEIU ousted them, became officers in a newly-formed rival union. SEIU sued and obtained money judgments against the outcasts.

One of those judgment debtors seeks to recover $15,830.04 garnished from his wages in the interval between (1) entry by this court of a judgment excepting SEIU’s money judgment from discharge in bankruptcy and (2) the subsequent reversal on appeal of that nondischargeability determination.

SEIU resists restitution by making a counter-motion to enforce a settlement agreement that was not executed and by sidestepping the unjust enrichment question.

There being no enforceable settlement agreement, the motion to order return of garnished funds due to reversal of the nondischargeability judgment on which the garnishments were premised will be GRANTED under the analysis recently restated in Restatement (Third) of Restitution § 18 and, independently, to…