Mackey et al. v. Lanier Collection Agency & Service, Inc. (486 U.S. 825)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 17, 1988 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 486 U.S. 825 · 108 S. Ct. 2182
- Decided
- June 17, 1988
- Term
- October Term 1987
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice White
- Issue area
- Federalism
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice White delivered the opinion of the Court. The issue here is whether and to what extent the Georgia statutes bearing on the garnishment of funds due to participants in ERISA employee welfare benefit plans are preempted by the federal statute which governs such plans. Petitioners are the trustees of an employee benefit plan that provides vacation and holiday benefits to eligible employees in several southeastern States. The covered workers draw their vacation benefits from the plan annually. The plan is an “employee welfare benefit plan” as defined by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U. S. C. § 1002(1). Respondent is a collection agency. It sought and obtained money judgments against 23 plan participants who owed money to clients of respondent. To collect these money judgments, respondent instituted an action in a Georgia trial court seeking to garnish the debtors’ plan benefits. The trial court granted the garnishment request. App. to Pet. for Cert. A-21. The Georgia Court of Appeals reversed, holding that a Georgia statute, Ga. Code Ann. §18-4-22.1 (1982), barring the garnishment of “[f ]unds or benefits of [an]. . . employee benefit plan or program subject to . . . [ERISA],” exempted plan benefits from garnishment. 178 Ga. App. 467, 470, 343 S. E. 2d 492, 495 (1986). The Georgia Supreme Court reversed. 256 Ga. 499, 350 S. E. 2d 439…
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