We have a customer who we suspect may be hiding funds from his ex-wife to avoid paying child support. He asked a teller whether a levy or garnishment could reach the property stored in his safe deposit box. Is that possible?

Yes, it is possible for a creditor to levy or garnish the contents of a safe deposit box to satisfy a debt.

The Illinois Code of Civil Procedure provides procedures for a judgment creditor to discover and require delivery of a judgment debtor’s assets. The citation to discover assets that is served on a judgment debtor includes an Income and Asset form requiring debtors to provide information about their accounts, including safe deposit boxes. If the debtor does hold property in a safe deposit box, a court may enter an order compelling a bank to deliver those assets.

Additionally, the Adverse Claims to Deposit Accounts Act requires a financial institution to deliver property held in a safe deposit box as directed in an appropriate court order.

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/2-1402(a) (“A judgment creditor, or his or her successor in interest when that interest is made to appear of record, is entitled to prosecute supplementary proceedings for the purposes of examining the judgment debtor or any other person to discover assets or income of the debtor not exempt from the enforcement of the judgment, a deduction order or garnishment, and of compelling the application of non-exempt assets or income discovered toward the payment of the amount due under the judgment.”)

Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/2-1402(b-5) (“The Income and Asset Form required to be served by the judgment creditor in subsection (b-1) shall be in substantially the following form: . . . In answer to the citation and supplemental proceedings served upon the judgment debtor, he or she answers as follows: . . . I have the following accounts: . . . Safe deposit box at . . .”)

Illinois Code of Civil Procedure, 735 ILCS 5/2-1402(c) (“When assets or income of the judgment debtor not exempt from the satisfaction of a judgment, a deduction order or garnishment are discovered, the court may, by appropriate order or judgment: . . . (3) Compel any person cited, other than the judgment debtor, to deliver up any assets so discovered, to be applied in satisfaction of the judgment, in whole or in part, when those assets are held under such circumstances that in an action by the judgment debtor he or she could recover them in specie or obtain a judgment for the proceeds or value thereof as for conversion or embezzlement.”)

Adverse Claims to Deposit Accounts Act, 205 ILCS 700/20(a) (“A financial institution shall recognize an adverse claim to, or an adverse claim of authority to control, a deposit account if the person making the claim obtains and serves upon the financial institution a certified copy of an appropriate order, by a court having jurisdiction, restraining any action with respect to the deposit account or instructing the financial institution to pay the balance of the deposit account or to deliver the property in the deposit account, in whole or in part, as provided in the order, until further order of the court.”)

Adverse Claims to Deposit Accounts Act, 205 ILCS 700/5 (“‘Deposit account’ includes without limitation any demand deposit account, checking account, negotiable order of withdrawal account, money market account, savings account, share account, member account, stock deposit account, certificate of deposit, time deposit, open account, or other credit of a depositor with a financial institution and property held in safe-deposit whether by the financial institution or in a safe-deposit box or other leased receptacle.”)