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528 P.2d 141

Baggs v. Anderson

Utah Supreme Court

Decided November 6, 1974

Utah Supreme Court · decided 1974-11-06

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“[I]t is appropriate to point out that support money can fall into two separate categories: First, the current and ongoing right of a child to receive support money from his father (parent); and second, the right to receive reimbursement for support of a child after that has been done. As to the second, suppose a father (parent) fails over a period of time to furnish support of the child, and the mother, or someone else, furnishes it. That person then has the right to claim reimbursement from the parent, the same as any other past debt. This right of reimbursement belongs to whomever furnished the support; and it is subject to negotiation settlement, satisfaction or discharge in the same manner as any other debt.”

quoted by 3 later decisions, including Hunter v. Hunter, State, Department of Human Services Ex Rel. Parker v. Irizarry

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1974-11-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 26 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2021 · most notably Stanton v. Stanton (1975), Sugarhouse Finance Co. v. Anderson (1980)

1 district · 23 state decisions

100197419801990200020102020decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

HENRIOD, Justice

¶1(dissenting):

¶2Respectfully, I dissent.

¶3It appears that the hallmark of the main opinion considerably is based on the gratui*145ty that if anybody, — just anybody, — pays a decreed amount for X, beneficiary of a judgment, — has some kind of an immutable right to collect from the judgment debtor. The main opinion says that if someone other than the judgment debtor takes care of the obligation, “That person then has the right to claim reimbursement, . the same as any other past debt.” It is impossible to determine who “that person” is here unless it be Baggs, her new husband, ■ — who has no contractual rights against the old husband.

¶4Such a concept allows an interloper, not particeps to a debt, and not a litigant in a legal proceeding, to muscle in on a contract or debt or judgment and collect on a voluntary payment of someone else’s obligation, — when the latter may be subject to a legal defense on the part of the creditor, such as fraud upon the court, full payment made, bankruptcy and any of many other such defenses. If Karen is suing for what she has paid, is one thing, but if she is suing for what Baggs has furnished, is another, which seems to be the case here.

¶5The statement of the main opinion, quoted above, completely departs from any known principles in the law of contracts.

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