Pub. 3 2012 Issue 3

www.wvbankers.org 8 In our spring 2012 article, “Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: What It Is and Why Compliance is Important,” we introduced the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (“the Act”). T his article will focus on the purposes of the Act and whom it covers, as understanding the coverage of the Act is important to determine if an individual qualifies for the protection of the Act, which we will discuss in our next article. The purposes of the Act are twofold: (1) “to provide for, strengthen, and expedite the national defense” by enabling servicemembers “to devote their entire energy to the defense needs of the Nation,” and (2) to ensure ad- equate protections to servicemembers during military service by suspending judicial and administrative proceed- ings. The Act is to be interpreted as liberally and expansively as possible for the servicemember’s benefit – not the creditor’s benefit – and courts are granted broad discretion regarding entitlement to relief under the Act. The earliest recognition of the need to provide civil protections to service- members dates back to the War of 1812 when Louisiana enacted “stay laws” that suspended all proceedings in civil cases for four months as the British advanced on New Orleans. The first modern version of these laws was drafted as a result of the United States’ decision to enter into World War I. In the face of the United States’ entry into World War II in 1940, Congress re- enacted the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act. Between 1942 and 2002, the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act was amend- ed 13 times. The 2002 revision, which was drafted in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, extended the protections of the Act to members of the National Guard called to active duty in response to a national emergency. Since then, the Act has been amended five more times. The Act applies to “servicemembers,” de- fined as: 1) members of the armed forces, 2) commissioned corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tion, and 3) the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service, during quali- fied “military service.” Information on whether an individual is a servicemember on active duty is available through the Defense Manpower Data Center. “Active duty” includes a much broader spectrum of scenarios than simply being in a war zone. Among other activities, active duty includes when “a service- member is absent from duty on account of sickness, wounds, leave, or other lawful cause” (i.e., time spent on the temporary disability retirement list); time spent on leave while earning a degree; and time spent in training under the supervision of the United States prior to induction into military service. How- ever, a person absent without leave is not entitled to the protections of the Act. Some provisions of the Act also extend to dependents of servicemembers while the servicemember is in military ser- vice. The term “dependent” is broadly defined as including the servicemember’s spouse, children, and any “individual for whom the servicemember provided more than one-half of the individual’s support for 180 days immediately preced- ing an application for relief” under the Act. Notably, the definition does not require a family relationship or that the individual reside in the same household. Congress intended that it cover parents, parents-in-law, and disabled adult chil- dren who are financially supported by a servicemember. Servicemembers Civil Relief Act: Purpose and Coverage By Angela L. Beblo and Brienne T. Marco, Spilman Thomas & Battle, PLLC Q Civil Relief Act — continued on page 11