The Superior Court of Justice, in ruling on the dissenting motion, reaffirmed a previously held understanding that the attachment of the entire balance of a joint account is undue, and that the attachment must be based on the debtor’s share. In other words, a debt owed to only one of the account holders cannot affect the non-debtor joint account holder.
The specific case referred to the tax enforcement action brought by the Municipality of Belo Horizonte against just one of the account holders, in which the entirety of the amounts held in the debtor’s joint account was seized, which was the subject of the appeal by the non-debtor account holder.
Still according to the STJ’s understanding, the solidarity existing in the joint account occurs only in relation to the financial institution and is not presumed in relation to third parties.
