BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 713
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Date of Hearing: April 5, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON VETERANS AFFAIRS
Paul J. Cook, Chair
AB 713 (Block) - As Introduced: February 17, 2011
SUBJECT : State militia: members: legal benefits.
SUMMARY : This bill clarifies legal benefits and protections of
service members with regard to legal obligations and civil
liabilities. The bill also extends some legal benefits and
protections of service members to the service members'
dependents.
Specifically, this bill :
1) Clarifies the date range during which a service member
may petition for relief from civil obligations and
liabilities; the range is specified to be any time during
the service member's most current period of military
service or within six months thereafter;
2) Specifies which civil obligations and liabilities may be
the subject of a petition for relief. The service member
may seek relief from any obligation or liability incurred
by the service member prior to the service member's orders
for his or her most current period of military service or
in respect of any tax or assessment whether falling due
prior to or during the service member's most current period
of military service. The orders date provides a date
certain for the start and end of a period of military
service;
3) Directs the court to consider, in deciding on petitions
for relief, the effect of the service member's most current
period of military service. Unless the court finds that
the ability of the service member to comply with the terms
of the obligation or liability or to pay the tax or
assessment has not been materially affected by reason of
the service member's most current period military service,
it may grant specified relief; and
4) At a court's discretion, extends to dependents a
temporary interest rate protection cap on interest bearing
obligations incurred prior to the service member's military
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service.
EXISTING LAW: Under existing law, service members may seek
relief from certain obligations and liabilities at any time
during a period of military service or within six months
thereafter. Further, service members may seek relief from
obligations only if those obligations were incurred prior to the
service member's active military service.
Existing law extends most of the protections from civil
liabilities and obligations that are granted to service members
to the dependents of those service members. For example,
eviction protection, repossession protection, foreclosure
protection, the right to defer installment payments and loans
and the ability to terminate leases early are all extended to
service members' dependents. For no reason specified, except
perhaps to parallel the federal Act, the interest cap section
was not included in the range of code sections extending rights
and protections to service members' dependents (MVC § 409.5).
In the corresponding sections of the federal Servicemembers
Civil Relief Act (SCRA) 50 U.S.C. App. §§501-596 (19 Dec 2003),
interest rate relief is also not granted to dependents.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS : The minor changes to Military and Veterans' Code
section 409.3 contained in this bill add clarity in two
respects. First, the window during which a service member may
seek relief from obligations, liabilities, taxes or assessments
is clarified; the petition for relief must be brought during the
most current period of military service or within 6 months
thereafter. Second, the window of time during which obligations
or liabilities (other than taxes or assessments) must have been
incurred or come due is refined; the obligation or liability
must have been incurred or come due before orders for the
service member's most current period of military service. The
addition of the orders clause provides a date certain for
commencement of military service. Taxes or assessments are
eligible for relief whether falling due prior to or during the
most current period of military service.
The sections at issue in this discussion are intended to protect
National Guard and reserve service members who transition back
and forth between active service and reserve or part-time
service according to the needs of the State or Nation. These
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are citizen-soldiers. As the law is written now, in the case
where such a service member incurs a liability during a period
of military service, he or she may not seek relief from that
liability. At first blush this seems equitable; at the time
when the service member incurred the obligation he or she was in
active service and presumably aware of his or her financial
circumstances.
For example, a service member purchases a motorcycle on credit
during active service and then later returns to reserve status.
The law as written does not allow the service member access to
relief from the motorcycle loan because it was incurred during
active service. However, as is now common, service members are
routinely ordered to active duty on multiple occasions. As the
law is currently drafted, if several years pass and the service
member is, for example, deployed multiple times, no matter the
impact of the current period of military service, the service
member is barred from seeking relief from the motorcycle loan
because it was incurred during a period of active service. In
short existing law does not take into account the modern
frequency of recurring deployments and activations and their
potential for cumulative financial impacts. Should this bill
become law, a court must still evaluate the impact of the
current period of military service before relief will be granted
from an obligation.
Existing California law evidences intent to protect service
members' dependents from financial hardships which might arise
during the period of active service of the service member, for
example during a deployment. Multiple protections are extended
to the dependents including protection from: eviction;
repossession; foreclosure; tax/lien collection proceedings; and
under California law, the ability to defer installment payments
including credit cards and auto loans. Dependents may cancel
leases and are granted the right to petition the court for
protection from various liabilities. The SCRA does not extend
this specific protection to dependents; however extending this
benefit to dependents is aligned with the evidence of California
legislative intent shown by all of the aforementioned
protections extended to dependents to protect them from
consequences of the service member's period of active duty.
PROPOSED AUTHOR'S AMENDMENTS:
The author desires to amend the bill:
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1) On page 2, line 4, after "her" insert: most current
2) One page 2, line 8, after "her" insert: most current
These amendments are technical and will not change the substance
of this analysis.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Military Department, Office of the Adjutant General, California
Credit Union League
American Legion-Department of California, AMVETS-Department of
California, California State Commanders Veterans Council.
Opposition
None.
Analysis Prepared by : John Spangler / V. A. / (916) 319-3550