Sprung At Last

The problem, of course, with collecting on any judgment against The Foreigner, or obtaining the documents he refused to produce, is this: He lives in another country. Sure you can do this stuff, but it gets difficult and time-consuming and, oh yes, expensive. I had mostly let it all go because I didn’t really need the child support and I was happy that The Child now had the college account that he had promised to her in our original divorce agreement.

I asked The Lawyer about this when my current woes began, because I was aware that a significant amount of fines had accrued. Can I collect this somehow? I asked.

It’s tough, he told me. I am not sure, because he did part of what was required – but not all. Start trying to collect it on your own, at least – send him letters, at least – so that if you decide to pursue it, you can show you’ve made the effort.

I might not be able to collect it all, and the expense and difficulty involved might outweigh what I might, maybe collect.

But The Foreigner doesn’t know this. And at the moment, he’s pissing me off.

Rather than pay the American medical bills for his American child, The Foreigner has a much better idea – what I should have done, and what he insists I must do next time: send her to the Netherlands. There, she can receive medical care that is either free or costs 360 euros per month, depending on what point The Foreigner is trying to make.

In the flurry of emails, I decide that this is a good time to remind him that he’s in contempt of court – something he has been for nearly six years.

The short version of the story: He applied for a child support support modification, insisting to the court that he was poverty-stricken, could barely feed the two children he’s had with his second wife. He provided a great deal of documentation in support of this point, showing he has barely any income in spite of having a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a very wealthy family from whom he has inherited considerable sums of money and property over the years.

I was astonished to learn that in Washington State, every time you produce another child, you are entitled to reduce the amount of support you pay the children you already have. My lawyer at the time explained that the courts believe these additional children should not have to suffer, and I guess I see the point, but it seems to me that my own child – who was there first and who his second wife was fully aware of when she produced these children – should still have priority.

I know, I’m greedy and needy.

So, when we had our day in court, I argued that he had not fully disclosed his assets, which included a large piece of commercial real estate – occupied by renters.

The Foreigner argued that he co-owned this with members of his family, and therefore it was none of the court’s business, and furthermore, his family refused to turn over any documentation for that reason.

The judge did not like this answer, and ordered him to turn over the documents showing the value of the property and the income it generated.

And when he didn’t, the judge fined him $25 a day until he produced the documents.

There were some other things involved – he ordered The Foreigner to produce a college account for The Child, which he actually did; he ordered to The Foreigner to pay my legal bills, which he partly did; and he gave The Foreigner a reduction in his child support.

So, like everything with The Foreigner, it’s a little bit muddy, but the fact remains: I have a court judgment showing that for six years, he’s been accruing fines of $25 a day.

I’ll spare you the trouble of doing the math: $54,ooo in fines.

And counting.