J.b. Hunt, LLC, Appellant v. Robert B. Thornton; Frieda v. Thornton; Robert B. and Frieda v. Thornton, as Trustees…

Summary

The court affirmed dismissal of J.B. Hunt’s creditor action seeking to attach the Thorntons’ future charitable-trust distributions and affirmed the related garnishment rulings. It held that the distributions were contingent on the Thorntons’ survival and therefore were not presently reachable by garnishment, but would become reachable when each payment became due; thus, the equitable-attachment procedure was unavailable because another legal remedy existed. Justice Hart, joined by Justice Baker, dissented, concluding that the creditor-bill procedure was available because garnishment could not reach the contingent future interests.