Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17054 – Legal process and assignment
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The right of a person to a retirement allowance, the retirement allowance itself, the refund of a person’s accumulated contributions, any death benefit, any other right accrued or accruing to any person under this Part and the money in the various funds created by this Part may not be subject to execution, garnishment, attachment or any other process and shall be unassignable except that: [PL 1987, c. 739, §§4, 48 (AMD).]
1. Retirement allowance available for child support. A member‘s retirement allowance is available to satisfy any child support obligation that is otherwise enforceable by execution, garnishment, attachment, assignment or other process;
[PL 1991, c. 184, §1 (AMD).]
Terms Used In Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17054
- accumulated contributions: includes as much of the employer's contribution in the Retirement Allowance Fund as is needed to reach 7. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001
- Alternate payee: means a spouse, former spouse, child or other dependent of a member or retiree who is recognized by a domestic relations order as having a right to receive all or a portion of the benefits payable by the retirement system with respect to that member or retiree. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001
- Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
- Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
- Beneficiary: means a person or persons designated by a member to receive a benefit under this Part or a person otherwise entitled to receive a benefit under this Part. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001
- Benefit: means any payment made, or required to be made, to a beneficiary under chapter 423, subchapter V or chapter 425, subchapter V. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001
- Chief executive officer: means the Chief Executive Officer of the Maine Public Employees Retirement System. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001
- Child: means any natural or legally adopted, born or unborn, progeny of a member. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- Domestic relations order: means a judgment, decree or order, including approval of a property settlement agreement, that:
A. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001Employee: means :
A. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001Garnishment: Generally, garnishment is a court proceeding in which a creditor asks a court to order a third party who owes money to the debtor or otherwise holds assets belonging to the debtor to turn over to the creditor any of the debtor Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases. Member: means any person included in the membership of a retirement program of the retirement system, as provided in chapter 423, subchapter 2, or chapter 425, subchapter 2. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001 Municipality: includes cities, towns and plantations, except that "municipality" does not include plantations in Title 10, chapter 110, subchapter IV; or Title 30?A, Part 2. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 1 Sec. 72 Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period. Qualified domestic relations order: means a domestic relations order that:
A. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001Restitution: The court-ordered payment of money by the defendant to the victim for damages caused by the criminal action. Retirement: means termination of membership with a retirement allowance granted under this chapter. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001 Retirement allowance: means the retirement payments to which a member is or may be entitled as provided in this Part. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001 Retirement benefit: means the same as retirement allowance. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001 Retirement system: means the Maine Public Employees Retirement System. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001 Spouse: means the person currently legally married to a member. See Maine Revised Statutes Title 5 Sec. 17001
2. Accumulated contributions available for child support. A member’s accumulated contributions that are refundable under sections 17705?A, 17706?A, 18306?A and 18307?A are available to satisfy any child support obligation that is otherwise enforceable by execution, garnishment, attachment, assignment or other process;
[PL 2011, c. 606, §8 (AMD).]
3. Recovery of overpayments by the retirement system. Any amounts due the retirement system as the result of overpayment or erroneous payment of benefits, an excess refund of contributions or overpayment or erroneous payment of life insurance benefits may be recovered from an individual’s contributions, any benefits or life insurance benefits payable under this Part to the individual or the beneficiary of the individual or any combination of contributions and benefits. If the overpayment or excess refund of contributions resulted from a mistake of or incorrect information provided by an employee of the retirement system, or a mistake of the retiree or the recipient of the benefit or life insurance benefit, a penalty or interest may not be assessed by the retirement system. In all cases of recovery of overpayments through the reduction of a retirement benefit, whether with or without the assessment of interest by the retirement system, the recovery practices must be reasonable and consider the personal economic stability of the retiree in the establishment of the recovery schedule. The chief executive officer may also take action to recover those amounts due from any amounts payable to the individual by any other state agency or by an action in a court of competent jurisdiction. Whenever the chief executive officer makes a decision to recover any amounts under this subsection, that decision is subject to appeal under section 17451.
Employers are responsible for enrolling employees in the correct retirement plan. The retirement system shall provide training, education and information to assist employers in the correct enrollment of employees. If an employee is enrolled in the incorrect retirement plan by the employer through no fault of the employee, the employee may not lose any retirement benefits. The State is not responsible for the employer contribution when the employer is a school district, municipality or county and those contributions and assessed interest, if applicable, must be paid to the retirement system by the school district, municipality or county;
[PL 2011, c. 606, §9 (AMD); PL 2021, c. 548, §45 (REV).]
4. Qualified domestic relations order. The rights of a member, retiree, beneficiary or other payee under this Part are subject to the rights of or assignment to an alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order in accordance with section 17059; and
[PL 2011, c. 606, §10 (AMD).]
5. Forfeiture and restitution. The rights and benefits of a member or retiree under this Part are subject to forfeiture or assignment to the member’s spouse, dependent or former spouse in accordance with the provisions of Title 5, section 17062.
[PL 2011, c. 606, §11 (NEW).]
SECTION HISTORY
PL 1985, c. 801, §§5,7 (NEW). PL 1987, c. 739, §§4,48 (AMD). PL 1991, c. 184, §§1,2 (AMD). PL 1991, c. 746, §§6-8 (AMD). PL 1991, c. 746, §10 (AFF). PL 1993, c. 386, §2 (AMD). PL 2005, c. 560, §1 (AMD). PL 2005, c. 560, §5 (AFF). PL 2007, c. 137, §9 (AMD). PL 2009, c. 322, §1 (AMD). PL 2011, c. 606, §§8-11 (AMD). PL 2021, c. 548, §45 (REV).