A Debtor filed bankruptcy, then spent 5 days on 23
hour-a-day lockdown in the Dakota County Jail on a Minnesota “Debt Warrant” –
He was never brought before a judge.
Most people are not aware that you can end up in jail for
owing a debt. If you owe a creditor
money and the creditor sues you in Minnesota State Court, they can obtain a
“money judgment” against you. This is
essentially a court order that one person or entity owes another person or
entity money. Once a judgment is
obtained, there are several things that a creditor can do to collect the
debt. A creditor can attempt to levy on
a bank account or garnish your wages.
Another thing a Creditor can do is mail you a piece of paper
called a “Demand for Disclosure” (if they have an attorney, if a creditor is
not represented by an attorney, they need to obtain an “Order for Disclosure”
from the Court Administrator). Either
of these is considered to be an order of the Court to disclose your assets to
the creditor. If you do not respond to
the Demand or Order within ten days, the creditor can apply to the Court for an
“Order to Show Cause.” An Order to
Show Cause is signed by a judge, and it has a time and place that the Debtor to
whom it is directed needs to appear in Court and “Show Cause” to the Court why
they should not be held in contempt of court for failing to respond to the
Order to Disclose assets. This Order to
Show Cause must be personally served on the Debtor and the original signature
of the Judge needs to be shown to the Debtor at the time the Order to Show
Cause is served. If the debtor shows up
at the hearing set on the Order to Show Cause, the Judge will order the debtor
to fill out the financial disclosure form that was mailed to them. If the debtor does not fill out this form,
the Judge can and probably will have the debtor held in jail for contempt until
such time as their - contempt is
“purged” – either by payment of the debt or by filling out the financial
disclosure form. If a debtor does not
show up for the hearing set on the Order to Show Cause, the Judge will issue a
warrant for the arrest of the debtor.
When the debtor encounters law enforcement, they will be arrested and
brought to jail. Once the debtor is in
jail, the debtor needs to be given an opportunity to purge their contempt
either by filling out the disclosure form or by paying the debt.
All of these procedures described above are creatures of
Minnesota State Law and Minnesota State Court.
Bankruptcy is Federal Law and is handled in Federal Courts. Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States
Constitution, the “Supremacy Clause” states as follows:
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States
which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall
be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of
the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the
constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”
Julius Chad Zimmerman filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in the
District of Minnesota on October 27, 2011.
At that time, he had a “debt warrant” out for him in Dakota County. The creditor who had obtained the warrant
was notified of the bankruptcy filing.
When Mr. Zimmerman filed for bankruptcy, he immediately obtained the
protection of the bankruptcy “automatic stay” set forth in 11 USC § 362, which
states in relevant part as follows:
“(a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, a petition
filed under section 301, 302,
or 303 of this title, or an application
filed under section 5(a)(3) of the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970,
operates as a stay, applicable to all entities, of—
(1) the commencement or continuation, including the issuance or
employment of process, of a judicial, administrative, or other action or
proceeding against the debtor that was or could have been commenced before the
commencement of the case under this title, or to recover a claim against the
debtor that arose before the commencement of the case under this title;
(2) the enforcement, against the debtor or against property of the
estate, of a judgment obtained before the commencement of the case under this
title”
(Italicization added)
In other words, the automatic stay is an order of the
Federal Court for any entity to cease any efforts to collect money from the
debtor. It is like a shield that
instantly envelopes the Debtor that protects him from any collection efforts.
On November 10, 2011, police in the town where Mr. Zimmerman
lived came to his home while he was babysitting his girlfriend’s children and
arrested him on the debt warrant and booked him in the Dakota County Jail. Mr. Zimmerman was not released from the
Dakota County Jail until November 15, 2011.
In the Dakota County Jail, Mr. Zimmerman was placed on 23 hour-a-day lockdown. He was not brought before a Judge and it was
days before he could get a hold of his attorney (Nathan Hansen, me). The creditor had failed to get the
debt-warrant against Mr. Zimmerman quashed (the term of art in Minnesota for
getting rid of a warrant). Mr.
Zimmerman’s attorney contacted the creditor’s attorney, who contacted the jail
to try and get Mr. Zimmerman released.
It still took several days to get Mr. Zimmerman released.
Mr. Zimmerman did not have any pending criminal charges
against him and was not subject to any sort of criminal proceeding or
process. He was only in jail on a
debt-warrant. When he was arrested and
brought to the Dakota County Jail, Mr. Zimmerman repeatedly told his captors
that he had filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy on October 27, 2011 and that the Federal
Court’s automatic stay was in place.
His captors ignored his pleas completely. Mr. Zimmerman’s captors at the Dakota County Jail not only
explicitly ignored his assertion about the automatic stay, they also never brought
him before a Judge to give him an opportunity to purge his contempt – or better
yet, explain that he had filed bankruptcy and under the protection of the
Federal Court’s automatic stay.
Creditors can be held liable to debtors for failing to get
debt-warrants quashed – and Mr. Zimmerman has settled with the creditor in his
case. However, important questions and
claims still remain. Mr. Zimmerman has filed suit in Federal District Court in Minnesota against the Dakota County Sheriff. In addition to his claims for
damages from being held in jail illegally, Mr. Zimmerman seeks prospective
injunctive relief (asking the Court for an Order to tell the Sheriff to
specifically do something, not just pay money) as follows:
“An Order
for prospective injunctive relief against the Defendants:
a. Requiring
Defendants to develop appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that civil
judgment debtors are timely brought before a Judge so that they may be heard.
b. Requiring
Defendants to develop appropriate policies and procedures to ensure that
debtors arrested on civil judgment warrants are not held indefinitely on 23
hour-a-day lockdown in their facility and otherwise not treated cruelly and
treated appropriately as debtors and not as persons accused of or convicted of
crimes.
c. Requiring
Defendants to develop appropriate policies and procedures to verify if judgment
debtors held on civil debt warrants have invoked the automatic stay pursuant to
11 U.S.C. § 362 et seq if the debtors assert verbally or in writing that
they have invoked the automatic stay.”
