Here you will find judgment laws and rules which apply for the area
of garnishments in the states of Connecticut, Delaware, and the District
of Columbia. Realize that codes, regulations, and court rules change
from time to time. You will want to check to confirm that these statutes
are up to date as of the time you need to apply them. State garnishment
laws will dictate how you must proceed with implementing a garnishment.
Garnishments are a primary part of judgment law.
Connecticut Procedural Requirements
When any post judgment paper, other than a wage
execution or property execution levied against property of a natural
person, is served on a third person, the judgment creditor shall
send a copy of the papers so served, together with a Statuteement
as to on whom the papers were served, to the judgment debtor at
his last known address by first class mail, postage paid. Conn.
Gen. Statute. Ann. _ 52351a.
Unless otherwise provided by law, service of process
concerning a post judgment procedure may be made by a proper officer
sending a true and attested copy thereof by certified mail, return
receipt requested, to a person at his last known address, as provided
for service of process by chapter 896, or as provided by rule of
court for service on an appearing party if made on a party who has
filed a post judgment appearance or if made within one hundred eighty
days of rendition of judgment on a party who appeared in the action.
Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann. _ 52 350e.
A judgment creditor may obtain discovery from the
judgment debtor or from any financial institution of any matters
relevant to satisfaction of the money judgment. The judgment creditor
shall commence any discovery proceeding by serving an initial set
of interrogatories, in a prescribed form containing such questions
as to the assets and employment of the judgment debtor as may be
approved by the judges of the superior court or their designee,
on the person from whom discovery is sought. Service of an initial
set of interrogatories relevant to obtaining satisfaction of a money
judgment of a up claims session of the superior court may be made,
upon request of the judgment creditor, by the clerk of the court
sending such interrogatories by certified mail, return receipt requested,
to the person from whom discovery is sought, provided the judgment
creditor pays to such clerk a fee of five dollars for each mailing
requested. Such person shall answer the interrogatories and return
them to the judgment creditor within thirty days of the date of
service. If interrogatories are served on a financial institution,
the financial institution shall disclose only whether it holds funds
of the judgment debtor on account and the balance of such funds,
up to the amount necessary to satisfy the judgment. The interrogatory
form shall specify the names and last known addresses of the judgment
creditor and the judgment debtor, the court in which and the date
on which the judgment was rendered, and the original amount of the
judgment and the amount due thereon. The interrogatory form shall
contain a notice of rights with respect to post judgment interrogatories
as prescribed by _ 52361b.
On failure of a person served with interrogatories
to, within the thirty days, return a sufficient answer or disclose
sufficient assets for execution, or on objection by such person
to the interrogatories, the judgment creditor may move the court
for such supplemental discovery orders as may be necessary to ensure
disclosure. Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann. _ 52351b.
Execution may be granted against any debts due from
any banking institution to a judgment debtor who is a natural person
[1], except to the extent such debt is protected as exempt or wages
[2]. If execution is desired against any such debt, the plaintiff
requesting the execution shall notify the clerk of the court. If
the papers are in order, the clerk shall issue such execution containing
a direction that the officer serving the same shall, within seven
days from the receipt by the officer of such execution, make demand
upon the main office of any banking institution having its main
office within the county of such officer or if such main office
is not within such officer’s county and such banking institution
has one or more branch offices within such county, upon an employee
of such a branch office, such employee and branch office having
been designated by the banking institution in accordance with regulations
adopted by the commissioner of banking in accordance with chapter
54, for payment of any such nonexempt debt due to the judgment debtor
and, after having made such demand, shall serve a true and attested
copy of the execution, together with the affidavit and exemption
claim form prescribed by subsection (k) of this section, with his
doings endorsed thereon, with the banking institution officer upon
whom such demand is made. If any such banking institution upon which
such execution is served and upon which such demand is made is indebted
to the judgment debtor, it shall remove from the debtor’s
account the amount of such indebtedness not exceeding the amount
due on such execution before its midnight deadline, as defined by
_ 42a4104.
Upon receipt of the execution and exemption claim
form from the serving officer, the banking institution shall forthwith
mail copies thereof, postage prepaid, to the judgment debtor at
his last known address with respect to the affected accounts on
the records of the banking institution. The institution shall hold
the amount removed from the debtor’s account pursuant to subsection
(c) of this section for fifteen days from the date of the mailing
to the judgment debtor and during such period shall not pay the
serving officer. If an exemption claim is made, the banking institution
shall continue to hold the amount removed from the judgment debtor’s
account for twenty days or until a court order is received regarding
disposition of the funds, whichever occurs earlier. If no order
is received within twenty days of the date the banking institution
sends a copy of the exemption claim form or notice of exemption
to the clerk of the court, the banking institution shall return
the funds to the judgment debtor’s account. If no claim of
exemption is received by the banking institution within fifteen
days of the mailing to the judgment debtor of the execution and
exemption claim form, the banking institution shall, upon demand,
forthwith pay the serving officer the amount removed from the judgment
debtor’s account, and the serving officer shall thereupon
pay such sum, less his fees, to the judgment creditor, except to
the extent otherwise ordered by a court. Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann.
_ 52367b.
If records or testimony are subpoenaed from a banking
institution in connection with a hearing conducted to determine
an exemption claim, the reasonable costs and expenses of the banking
institution in complying therewith shall be recoverable by it from
the party requiring such records or testimony, provided, the banking
institution shall be under no obligation to attempt to obtain records
or documentation relating to the account executed against which
are held by any other banking institution. If there are moneys to
be removed from the debtor’s account, prior to the removal
of such moneys the banking institution shall receive from the serving
officer as representative of the judgment creditor a fee of eight
dollars for its costs in complying with these provisions which fee
may be recoverable by the creditor as a taxable cost of the action.
Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann. _ 52367b.
Interest Rate at which Judgments Accrue At the rate
of ten per cent a year, and no more, may be recovered and allowed
in civil actions, including actions to recover money loaned at a
greater rate, as damages for the detention of money after it becomes
payable [3]. Whenever the maker of any contract is a resident of
another Statutee, any obligee or holder of such contract, residing
in this Statutee, may lawfully recover any agreed rate of interest
or damages on such contract until it is fully performed, not exceeding
the legal rate of interest in the Statutee where such contract purports
to have been made. Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann. _ 373a.
Applicable Forms 1 Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann. Sec
52367a governs executions against debts due from banking institutions
when the debtor is not a natural person. 2 See Conn. Gen. Statute.
Ann. Sec. 52352a, 5352b, 52361a. 3 Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann. _ 373b
governs the rate of interest recoverable in negligence actions.
Similarly, Conn. Gen. Statute. Ann. _ 373c governs the rate of interest
recoverable in condemnation cases.
Delaware Procedural Requirements
Banks are exempt from equitable order restraining
disbursement of funds. Delaware Trust Co. v. Partial, 517 A.2d 259
(Del. Ch. 1986).
Interest Rate at which Judgments Accrue Judgments
shall bear interest at the rate in the contract sued upon. Where
there is no expressed contract rate, the legal rate of interest
shall be 5% over the Federal Reserve discount rate including any
surcharge as of the time from which interest is due. Del. Code Ann.
tit. 6, _ 2301.
District of Columbia Procedural Requirements
An attachment may be issued upon a judgment either
before or after or at the same time with a fieri facias. If costs
are unnecessarily multiplied thereby they shall be charged to the
party causing the attachment to be issued. D.C. Code § 16-542.
An attachment shall be levied upon credits of the
defendant, in the hands of a garnishee, by serving the garnishee
with a copy of the writ of attachment and of the interrogatories
accompanying the writ, and a notice that any property or credits
of the defendant in his hands are seized by virtue of the attachment.
D.C. Code § 16-546.
Where the property or credits attached or sought
to be attached are held by the garnishee in the name of or for the
account of a person other than the defendant, the garnishee shall
retain the property or credits during the period pending determination
by the court of the propriety of the attachment or the rightful
owner of the property or credits. During that period the garnishee
shall incur no liability whatsoever for the retention. D.C. Code
§ 16-547.
The court may make all orders necessary for the
preservation of the property attached. D.C. Code § 16-550.
In any case in which a writ of attachment is issued, the plaintiff
may submit interrogatories in writing, in such form as may be allowed
by the rules or special order of the court, to be served upon any
garnishee, asking about any property of the defendant in his possession
or charge, or indebtedness of his to the defendant at the time of
the service of the attachment or between the time of service and
the filing of his answers to the interrogatories. The garnishee
shall file his answers, verified by a written declaration that the
answers are made under the penalties of perjury, to the interrogatories
within ten days after service upon him. In addition to the answers
to written interrogatories required of him, the garnishee may, on
motion, be required to appear in court and be examined orally, under
oath, touching any property or credits of the defendant in his hands.
D.C. Code § 16-552.
If a garnishee answers to interrogatories that he
does not have property or credits of the defendant, or has less
than the amount of the plaintiff’s judgment, the plaintiff
may traverse the answer as to the existence or amount of the property
or credits, and the issue thereby made may be tried as provided
by § 16-551. In such a case, where judgment is rendered for
the garnishee, the plaintiff shall be adjudged to pay to the garnishee,
in addition to the taxed costs, a reasonable attorney’s fee.
If the issue is found for the plaintiff, judgment shall be rendered
for him in accordance with the finding. D.C. Code § 16-553.
If a garnishee has admitted credits in his hands,
in answer to interrogatories served upon him, or the credits have
been found upon an issue made, judgment shall be entered against
him for the amount of credits admitted or found, not exceeding the
amount of the plaintiff’s judgment, and costs, and execution
shall be had thereon not to exceed the credits in his hands. When
the credits are not immediately due and payable, execution shall
be stayed until they become due. When the garnishee has failed to
answer the interrogatories served on him, or to appear and show
cause why a judgment condemnation should not be entered, judgment
shall be entered against him for the whole amount of the plaintiff’s
judgment and costs, and execution may be had thereon. D.C. Code
§ 16-556.
Interest Rate at which Judgments Accrue In an action
in the United Statutees District Court for the District of Columbia
or the Superior Court of the District of Columbia to recover a liquidated
debt on which interest is payable by contract or by law or usage
the judgment for the plaintiff shall include interest on the principal
debt from the time when it was due and payable, at the rate fixed
by contract, if any, until paid. D.C. Code § 15-108.
In an action to recover damages for breach of contract
the judgment shall allow interest on the amount for which it is
rendered from the date of the judgment only. In an action to recover
damage for a wrong the judgment for the plaintiff shall bear interest.
D.C. Code § 15-109. The rate of interest is 70% of the rate
of interest set by the Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to §
6621 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 for underpayments and
overpayments of tax to the Internal Revenue Service, rounded to
the nearest full percent, or if exactly 1/2 of 1%, increased to
the nearest full percent. D.C. Code § 28-3302.
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