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Associated Bank N.A. v. Collier (2014)

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Associated Bank N.A. v. Collier (2014)

Citation: 2014 WI 62, 355 Wis. 2d 343, 852 N.W.2d 443 · Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court, No. 2011AP2597 · Decided: July 15, 2014 · Opinions: Roggensack, J., for the court; Abrahamson, C.J., joined by Bradley, J., dissenting; Prosser, J., did not participate

Source note (2026-10-18):

Opinion text retrieved 2026-10-17 from the Caselaw Access Project’s static copy of the Wisconsin Reports, 2d series (static.case.law, volume 355), an unofficial host. The official annotation to Wis. Stat. § 816.08 (2023-24 statutes, published 2026-10-01, docs.legis.wisconsin.gov) summarizes the holding.

Facts

SB1 Waukesha County, LLC bought part of a docketed money judgment against Jack Collier. Decade Properties, owned by Collier’s business associate, obtained a stipulated judgment of about USD 654,647 against Collier, which the clerk failed to docket for months, and served Collier with an order to appear for supplemental proceedings in November 2010. SB1 served its own order in April 2011, a supplemental receiver was appointed, and SB1 moved to sell Collier’s Brookfield personal property (fair market value USD 63,925) and for turnover of stock, claims and partnership interests. Decade argued that service of its supplemental-proceedings order gave it a superior “common law creditor’s lien” on all of Collier’s personal property.

Holding

Supplemental proceedings under Wis. Stat. ch. 816 are a discovery tool; serving an order to appear does not create a blanket lien on the debtor’s personal property. A judgment creditor obtains an interest in identified, non-exempt personal property superior to other unsecured creditors when it (1) dockets its money judgment, (2) identifies specific personal property and (3) levies it — by sheriff’s execution, by garnishment, or by an order applying specific property to the judgment through a supplemental receiver (Wis. Stat. § 815.05, § 812.01, Wis. Stat. § 816.08). SB1, the first docketed creditor to levy, had priority as to the property it levied.

Reasoning

  • “Personal property shall be bound from the time it is seized” (Wis. Stat. § 815.19(1)); the rule goes back to Knox v. Webster, 18 Wis. 426 (1864) (¶¶ 40, 42).
  • Docketing is a precondition because an execution must state the docket entry (§ 815.05(1g)(a)6.) (¶ 42).
  • Mann v. Bankruptcy Estate of Badger Lines, 224 Wis. 2d 646 (1999), was limited to its context (¶ 44). Serving a supplemental order does not create an interest superior to a secured creditor who has proceeded under ch. 409 (¶ 45).
  • The court noted that priority between two levying docketed creditors, or against a perfected secured party, may need further analysis (footnote).

Practical impact

  • Buyers at execution or receiver sales of personalty: the selling creditor’s priority rests on docketing plus a levy on the specific item; a sale by a creditor who never levied the item conveys a weaker position against competing creditors.
  • Creditors: speed in levying identified property, not merely serving supplemental papers, fixes priority among unsecured judgment creditors.
  • Secured parties under ch. 409 are not displaced by supplemental-proceedings service.

Good-law status

The full opinion holding was independently checked on 2026-10-17 against the official court body. Prior CAP retrieval and its unofficial-host disclosure above are preserved. The current official statutory annotation remains relevant evidence of citation, but is not a complete subsequent-history/citator check.

Rechecked 2026-10-18 (CourtListener citation search; results retained in schema/verification/wisconsin-evidence-2026-10-18/): Prince Corp. v. Vandenberg, 2016 WI 49 (read in full from the Caselaw Access Project static copy, an unofficial host), applies Collier for the rule that a garnishor reaches only what the debtor could demand when garnishment is served, and for the erroneous-exercise-of-discretion standard; other listed citing decisions (Bakley 2018, Frey Construction 2024, In re Clark 2015) were identified but not read. No negative treatment located. Not a commercial citator check.

Applies in →

wisconsin · court-ordered-administrative-and-creditor-sales · receivership-sales · personal-property-execution-sales-by-state

Legal information, not legal advice. Verify current primary sources before acting.

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