STATE TREASURER V TIMOTHY SPRAGUE
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
STATE TREASURER,
FOR PUBLICATION
June 4, 2009
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v
No. 281961
Bay Circuit Court
LC No. 07-003569-CZ
TIMOTHY SPRAGUE,
Advance Sheets Version
Defendant-Appellant,
and
JOHN GILMAN,
Defendant,
and
DOW CHEMICAL EMPLOYEES CREDIT
UNION,
Defendant-Appellee.
Before: Bandstra, P.J., and Whitbeck and Shapiro, JJ.
SHAPIRO, J. (concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur with the majority’s conclusion that under State Treasurer v Abbott, 468 Mich
143; 660 NW2d 714 (2003), the State Treasurer had the authority to require defendant to notify
his former employer, Dow Chemical Company, that his pension benefits should be mailed to his
prison address rather than deposited directly into his credit union account. I also agree that once
pension funds have been deposited into a prisoner’s account, whether that is a prison account or
an account held in an outside financial institution, the State Treasurer may obtain an order
directing that institution to disburse the appropriate portion of those funds to the state. However,
I do not agree that the state itself may direct the pension plan where to disburse the prisoner’s
pension benefits. As set forth in DaimlerChrysler Corp v Cox, 447 F3d 967 (CA 6, 2006), the
Employee Retirement Income Security Act, (ERISA), 29 USC 1056(d)(1), contains an antialienation provision that “obligates a plan to protect benefits from alienation ‘at least up to the
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point of payment.’” Id. at 974, quoting Guidry v Sheet Metal Workers Nat’l Pension Fund, 39
F3d 1078, 1082 (CA 10, 1994) (en banc). I believe that the reasoning of DaimlerChrysler is
persuasive particularly in its conclusion that a state order to the pension fund to deposit the
disbursements into a prison account is a “mere formalism that is not dispositive of whether an
alienation has occurred.” Id. at 976.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from that portion of the opinion approving an order
directing the pension fund to direct the monies to the prison account. I concur in all other
respects.
/s/ Douglas B. Shapiro
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