Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Children of loan defaulters fight bank over seizure of savings accounts

Nevada State Bank in Las Vegas is going after every penny to recover a $4.1 million loan that is in default.

The Nevada Supreme Court said Thursday that three teenagers should get a chance to prove the $11,901 in their savings accounts is theirs and can’t be garnished just because their parents didn’t make the payments on a real estate loan.

The court ordered District Judge Jessie Elizabeth Walsh to hold a hearing as to whether the bank accounts of Haley, Tyson and Trey Brooksby really belonged to them and are not subject to seizure.

Their father, Craig Brooksby, was a real estate developer in Clark County and obtained a $4.1 million loan from Nevada State Bank secured by a large parcel of land. The recession hit and the loan payments could not be paid.

The bank foreclosed on the real estate and obtained a deficiency judgment against Craig Brooksby and his wife, Sonja.

At the time the children — Haley, 19, Tyson, 17, and Trey, 15 — said the bank accounts were money given to them for their birthdays, college scholarships and wages they earned from odd jobs while in high school.

These accounts were held jointly by their mother. Nevada State Bank obtained writs to seize the money from the savings accounts. Judge Walsh denied without a hearing a petition by the children to return the funds.

The Supreme Court, in a decision written by Justice Ron Parraguirre, said it agreed that the bank is not entitled to retain any funds owned solely by the Brooksby children.

The court said judge Walsh should give the children “an opportunity to demonstrate, in an evidentiary hearing, that the funds are owned by them and not by their parents.”

Court briefs said the parents now live in Utah and have not made any payments.

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