I'm not making moral or ethical judgment on this -- I just want to provide advice which is as accurate and reliable as possible.  The debt was the husband's, in his name with his social security number.  The creditor is a big bank with resources to pursue the debtor.  In my mind, the creditor had two years (2018 & 2019) to collect the debt from the spouse if there were any grounds upon which they could enforce collection.  Therefore, the bank may not have been justified to enforce a collection, or didn't want to spend the time and money to collect the debt.  In any event, the bank filed the necessary paperwork causing this question.  I have worked as a court clerk in Surrogate's and saw many creditors walk away from similar situations.  I thought some tax preparer might have a more defined answer than mine.

I appreciate the thoughts of all.  Paula