## Facts

- Florida Mobile Home Communities, Inc. (FMHC) and Atlantic Mobile Homes, Inc. (Atlantic) were partners in a partnership.
- LeFever, Krause, and Clark (plaintiffs) obtained a money judgment against FMHC.
- Atlantic and the Atlantic–FMHC partnership were not parties to the litigation that produced the judgment against FMHC.
- To satisfy their judgment, the plaintiffs sought to attach and liquidate FMHC’s interest in the partnership’s assets.
- The trial court entered an order allowing the plaintiffs to attach and liquidate FMHC’s interest in the partnership assets.
- Atlantic appealed the trial court’s order permitting attachment and liquidation.

## Issues

1. May a judgment creditor of one partner attach and liquidate partnership assets (or a partner’s share of those assets) to satisfy a judgment against that partner when the partnership and the nondebtor partner were not parties to the underlying suit?

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the trial court’s order that permitted attachment and liquidation of partnership assets (or FMHC’s purported share of those assets) to satisfy the judgment against FMHC.
- The court reasoned that a judgment against an individual partner does not authorize execution against specific partnership property in a manner that would impair the partnership and the rights of the nondebtor partner.
- The court remanded for further proceedings consistent with the proper statutory method for reaching a partner’s interest.

## Legal Principles

- Partnership property belongs to the partnership entity; an individual partner does not own a divisible, attachable share of each partnership asset.
- A judgment creditor of an individual partner generally may reach only that partner’s transferable economic interest (e.g., the right to receive distributions), not specific partnership assets.
- The customary statutory remedy for a creditor seeking to reach a partner’s interest is a charging order (or its functional equivalent under applicable partnership statutes), rather than attachment and forced liquidation of partnership property.
- Courts must account for the rights of the nondebtor partner and the continued operation of the partnership when enforcing judgments against a single partner.

## Conclusion

Atlantic Mobile Homes, Inc. v. LeFever holds that judgment creditors who have a money judgment against only one partner (FMHC) cannot satisfy that judgment by attaching and liquidating partnership assets in which a nondebtor partner (Atlantic) also has rights, particularly where neither the partnership nor the nondebtor partner was a party to the underlying litigation. The trial court’s order permitting attachment and liquidation was reversed, and the case was sent back for proceedings that limit any collection efforts to the debtor-partner’s partnership interest through the proper statutory mechanism.


Atlantic Mobile Homes, Inc. v. LeFever, 481 So. 2d 1002 (1986)