Case Number: SC097802 Hearing Date: March 06, 2019 Dept: P

CASE NAME: William Scott Ferguson v. Lee Danielson et. al., Case No. SC097802

HEARING DATE: 3/6/2019

MOTION: Assignee of Record Judgment Recovery Assistance, LLC’s Motion for Assignment and Turnover Order

TENTATIVE RULING

Judgment Recovery Assistance, LLC (“judgment creditor”) holds the right to collect an outstanding judgment of $123,069.22 from judgment debtor Lee Danielson. Judgment creditor seeks an order compelling judgment debtor to turn over his membership at the Bel-Air Country Club to satisfy the judgment.

Upon noticed motion, a court may issue an order directing a judgment debtor to assign to the judgment creditor “all or part of a right to payment due or to become due, whether or not the right is conditioned on future developments[.]” (Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. §708.510.) Additionally, a court may “order the judgment debtor’s interest in the property in the possession or under the control of the judgment debtor or the third person or a debt owed by the third person to the judgment debtor to be applied toward the satisfaction of the money judgment[.]” (Cal. Code of Civ. Proc. §708.205.)

The motion does not attempt establish that defendant’s membership establishes a “right to payment due or to become due.” If anything, it would seem that future payments would be due from the member to the club, not from the club to the member.

There is no basis for the court to order defendant to turn over the membership, assuming that plaintiff could resell the membership to satisfy the judgment. Judgment creditor’s motion under §708.205 fails. That code section allows property to be applied to a judgment—membership in a country club cannot be applied to a judgment unless it is valued and sold. Nothing in §708.205 authorizes property to be valued unilaterally or put up for public sale—therefore, it generally only applies to monetary property (such as cash) that can easily be applied toward satisfying a judgment. (See, e.g. Palacio Del Mar Homeowners Assn., Inc. v. McMahon (2009) 174 Cal.App.4th 1386, 1390 (internet domain name could not be “applied” to a judgment under §708.205.)) Additionally, as in Palacio, the court cannot order the turnover of the membership under CCP §699.040, which is limited to tangible property that can be “taken into custody.” (Id. at 1391.) A club membership is intangible. DENIED.