Source: http://www.legis.state.wv.us/WVCODE/Code.cfm?chap=38&art=5B
Timestamp: 2016-08-25 22:18:36
Document Index: 379904012

Matched Legal Cases: ['§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38', '§38']

Chapter 38 | Article 38 - 5B
38 - 5 B- 1 38 - 5 B- 2 38 - 5 B- 3 38 - 5 B- 4 38 - 5 B- 5 38 - 5 B- 6 38 - 5 B- 7 38 - 5 B- 8 38 - 5 B- 9 38 - 5 B- 10 38 - 5 B- 11 38 - 5 B- 12 38 - 5 B- 13 38 - 5 B- 14 38 - 5 B- 15 38 - 5 B- 16 6 - INDEMNIFYING, SUSPENDING AND FO
WVC 38 - 5 B- ARTICLE 5B. SUGGESTION OF THE STATE AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS;
WVC 38 - 5 B- 1 §38-5B-1. Definitions. For purposes of this article:
1. The term "suggestee execution" shall mean an execution
differing from an ordinary execution upon a judgment only in that
it is directed against money due or to become due to the judgment
debtor from the suggestee as therein set out.
2. The term "state agency" shall mean any department,
institution, board, commission, bureau, or other agency of the
state government, including a public corporation created to
effect a state public improvement.
3. The term "political subdivision" shall mean any county,
county board of education, municipal corporation, or any other
public corporation or governmental unit organized to perform one
or more of the functions of local government or to effect a local
4. The term "proper officer" shall mean the officer of the
state, a state agency, or a political subdivision, as the case
may be, upon whom to make service of suggestee executions under
5. The term "judgment creditor" shall include the owner of
a money decree.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 2 §38-5B-2. Application for suggestee execution against money from state, state agency or political subdivision; extent of lien and continuing levy; priority among suggestee executions. A judgment creditor may apply to the court in which the
judgment was recovered or a court having jurisdiction of the
same, without notice to the judgment debtor, for a suggestee
execution against any money due or to become due within one year
after the issuance of the same to the judgment debtor from the
state, a state agency, or any political subdivision of the state.
If satisfactory proof shall be made, by affidavit or otherwise,
of such facts, and, where the execution is sought against salary
or wages, of the fact that the amount due or to become due as
salary or wages after the deduction of state and federal taxes
exceeds in any week thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage
then in effect, the court, if not a court of record, or if a
court of record, the clerk thereof, shall issue a suggestee
execution against such money due or to become due to the judgment
debtor, and there shall be entered on the face thereof the day
and hour of issuance.
Such execution and the expenses thereof shall, when served
by the officer to whom delivered for collection in the manner
hereinafter provided, upon the state, a state agency or political
subdivision from which such money is due or may thereafter become
due to the judgment debtor, become a lien and continuing levy
upon the sums due or to become due to the judgment debtor within
one year after the issuance of the same (but not to exceed twenty per centum of the salary or wages due to such judgment debtor or
reduce the amount received by him per week to an amount less than
thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage then in effect)
unless sooner satisfied and paid, vacated or modified as
Where more than one suggestee execution shall have been
issued pursuant to the provisions of this section against the
same judgment debtor, they shall be satisfied in the order of
priority in which they are served upon the state, state agency or
political subdivision from which such money is due or shall
become due. For purposes of determining such priority the time
that an execution served by mail, as hereinafter provided shall
be received, and not the time of admission of service shall
control. In the case of two or more executions received in the
same mail delivery priority shall be accorded the one first
WVC 38 - 5 B- 3 §38-5B-3. Suggestee execution against salary or wages;
commencement of lien; priorities. A suggestee execution issued under this article against
salary or wages shall become a lien and continuing levy upon sums
due or to become due to the judgment debtor as salary or wages to
an amount equal to twenty per centum thereof and no more, but in
no event shall the payments in satisfaction of such an execution
reduce the amount payable to the judgment debtor to less than
twenty dollars per week. A suggestee execution against salary or
wages shall contain the name of the judgment debtor and the
bureau, office, department, institution or subdivision thereof of
the state or political subdivision of the state, as the case may
be, of which he is an officer or employee. If a person so
employed shall resign or be dismissed while an execution issued
hereunder against his salary or wages is wholly or partly
unsatisfied, and he shall thereafter be reinstated or reemployed,
the execution shall lapse and no further deduction shall be made
with respect thereto from his salary or wages unless such
reinstatement or reemployment shall occur within ninety days
after such resignation or dismissal. A suggestee execution shall
not be affected by the transfer of the officer or employee who is
the judgment debtor from one bureau, office, department,
institution or subdivision thereof of the state or a political
subdivision to another if the officer upon whom service of the
execution was made would be the proper officer for service of a
suggestee execution against salary or wages due or to become due
to the judgment debtor in the new employment.
Such an execution shall not become a lien against salary or
wages payable by the state or a state agency within ten days
after the service thereof or payable by a political subdivision
within five days after the service thereof but shall become a
lien and continuing levy upon the salary or wages which shall
become due or owing to the judgment debtor thereafter during the
life of the execution.
Only one suggestee execution against the salary or wages of
a judgment debtor shall be satisfied at one time, except that in
the event two or more such executions have been served and
satisfaction of the one having priority is completed without
exhausting the amount of the salary or wages then due and payable
that is subject to suggestion under this article the balance of
such amount shall be paid in satisfaction, in the order of their
priority, of junior suggestee executions against such salary or
wages theretofore served.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 4 §38-5B-4. Notice to judgment debtor of execution against salary or
wages; time for service on officer of suggestee.
A certified copy of an execution issued under this article
against salary or wages shall be served by the clerk of the court
who issued the execution upon the judgment debtor or his or her
agent authorized to accept service of process, by certified mail,
return receipt requested. The day and hour of mailing shall be
clearly noted on the face of the original execution and the officer
to whom it is delivered for collection shall not make service upon
the proper officer until the expiration of five days from that
WVC 38 - 5 B- 5 §38-5B-5. Service of suggestee execution and vacating or
modifying order. An execution issued under this article against money due and
owing or to become due and owing from the state, or a state
agency which shall be payable on the warrant of the state auditor
for the payment thereof directed to the judgment debtor must be
served upon the state auditor at his office in Charleston. In
the case of money payable directly by any state agency the
execution shall be served upon the auditor of such agency, or,
lacking such, upon the officer thereof whose duty it is to audit
and/or to issue warrants, checks or orders for the payment of
such claims. Such service shall be made by exhibiting and at the
same time delivering a true copy of the original execution, and
paying the prescribed fee, to the proper officer, or to a person
in his office designated and authorized by the state auditor or
head of such department, institution, or agency, as the case may
be, by writing filed in such office to receive it. Service of
such an execution may be made by mail by the court or the clerk
of the court who issued the execution or by the officer to whom
the same is delivered or by any credible person, by enclosing the
original suggestee execution in a postpaid wrapper addressed to
the proper officer and agency together with a true copy thereof
and the amount of the prescribed fee. Service by mail shall not
be deemed to be complete until duly admitted and until the
original execution shall have been returned to the court or the
clerk of the court who issued said execution. Such admission
shall be made as soon as may be in the regular course of administration after receipt of the execution. The admission may
be subscribed by the officer upon whom the service is required by
this section to be made or by a person in his office designated
and authorized by the state auditor or the head of a state
agency, as the case may be, by writing filed in such office, to
admit service of suggestee executions.
A suggestee execution against a political subdivision of the
state shall be served upon the auditor thereof or the officer
who, or the clerk of the board or any body which is charged with
the duty of auditing and/or issuing warrants, checks or orders
for the payment of such claims, in like manner as service
hereunder upon state officers, except that service by mail shall
not be sufficient or binding.
Service of a vacating or modifying order issued pursuant to
section six of this article shall be made in the manner herein
prescribed for the service of a suggestee execution.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 6 §38-5B-6. Vacation and modification of suggestee executions. Either party may apply at any time to the court, if a court
not of record, or the court or a judge thereof, if a court of
record, from which such an execution shall have issued, upon such
notice to the other party as such court or judge shall direct for
the vacation or modification of the execution. After conducting
a hearing thereon, the court or judge shall vacate the execution
if satisfaction of the same or the judgment be made out by
affidavit or otherwise, and in any case may make such
modification of the execution as shall be deemed just, and such
execution as so modified shall continue in full force and effect
until paid and satisfied, or until vacated or further so
modified. Such an execution may be vacated at any time upon the
application of the judgment creditor without notice or a hearing
and in such a case the clerk of a court of record shall have
power to vacate the execution if issued out of his court. For the
protection of the suggestee, the lien of a suggestee execution
shall, as regards the suggestee, be deemed unaffected by a
vacating or modifying order prior to service of such order upon
the suggestee.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 7 §38-5B-7. Renewal of suggestee executions. A suggestee execution which shall expire wholly or partly
unsatisfied may be renewed from time to time in the manner in
which it was originally issued and for a like period. The
renewal execution shall conform to the original save that it
shall state in addition the fact that it is a renewal and shall
be issued only for the balance due on the judgment. A renewal
execution shall retain the same priority of lien as the original
if, and only if, served within a thirty-day period ending on the
date of the expiration of the life of the original or the last
previous renewal, as the case may be.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 8 §38-5B-8. Fees. A filing fee of one dollar shall be paid the proper officer
for each suggestee execution or renewal thereof served upon him.
A filing fee of fifty cents shall be paid such officer for any
other paper served upon him under this article. The sums so
received shall, in cases where the state or a state agency is the
suggestee, be paid into the state treasury, to the credit of the
general fund, and, in cases where a political subdivision is
suggestee, be paid over to the credit of its general fund.
The general laws governing the fees of courts and court
officers shall apply to the duties and functions performed under
this article. In no event, however, shall the fee for modifying
or vacating a suggestee execution exceed one dollar.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 9 §38-5B-9. Payments in satisfaction of execution; liability of
officer for payment or failure to pay; action
against political subdivision failing to pay;
declaratory judgment as to right against state. It shall be the duty of the proper officer, after service of
an execution under this article, bearing the notation required by
section four hereof if directed against salary or wages, to pay
to the court or the clerk of the court who issued the execution
or to the officer presenting the same such sums as may be or
shall thereafter become due to the judgment debtor from the
suggestee, or the amount thereof prescribed in section three of
this article in the case of salary or wages, during the life of
the execution until it shall be wholly satisfied. The proper
officer or suggestee upon whom the execution or any renewal
execution is served shall once every ninety days during the life
of such execution and any renewal execution pay over as aforesaid
the full amount of money payable, held or retained pursuant to
such execution or renewal execution during the preceding ninety
A public officer who shall either pay over or fail or refuse
to pay over, in satisfaction of such execution, money due the
judgment debtor shall be personally liable therefor only if he
shall have acted in bad faith, even though such payment or
failure or refusal to pay shall have been in violation of the
rights of one or more parties in interest.
If a political subdivision be the suggestee and shall fail
or refuse to pay over to the officer who served the execution the amount due the judgment debtor or the required percentage thereof
in the case of salary or wages, it shall be liable to an action
therefor by the judgment creditor named in the execution and the
amount recovered in the action shall be applied toward the
payment of the execution.
No judgment may be recovered against the state as suggestee
but a judgment creditor may bring an action against the proper
officer for a declaratory judgment establishing his right to have
sums due or to become due to his judgment debtor or from the
state or a state agency applied in satisfaction of a suggestee
execution issued on his judgment pursuant to this article. Such
an action may be brought against the state auditor only in the
circuit court of Kanawha county. Costs shall be in the
WVC 38 - 5 B- 10 §38-5B-10. Priority of suggestee executions over assignments. An execution issued and served under this article shall have
priority over an assignment filed with the proper officer
subsequent to service of the notice required by section four
hereof in the case of salary or wages and subsequent to service
of the execution in any other case. This section is not intended
and shall not be deemed to modify the now existing law governing
the validity of the assignment of the salary or wages of a public
WVC 38 - 5 B- 11 §38-5B-11. Executions against claims due contractors on public
works. An execution issued and served under this article shall, in
the case of money due or to become due to a contractor on public
work, apply only to such sums as shall be payable to the
contractor after completion and acceptance of the work.
Certification of completion and acceptance by the officer or body
whose duty it is to make such determination shall be sufficient
evidence to the proper officer of the facts of completion and
acceptance for purposes of making payment in satisfaction of
suggestee executions issued under this article.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 12 §38-5B-12. Exemptions.
A judgment debtor to whom money is due or to become due which
would otherwise be subject to suggestion under this article may
have the same exempted from levy in the manner and to the extent
provided by article eight of this chapter. In the case of salary
or wages the exemption may be claimed for sums currently accruing
but must be asserted anew as to any salary or wages which shall
begin to accrue after the next payment date. Such exemption shall
not be binding upon the state, state agency or political
subdivision of which the judgment debtor is an officer or employee
unless and until a certificate of exemption or true copy thereof
shall have been delivered to the proper officer upon whom to make
service of a suggestee execution under this article.
Money due to any lawful beneficiary thereof from any workers'
compensation, unemployment compensation, pension or retirement,
public assistance or relief fund or system, or under the state's
emergency employment program as provided by section six, Title II
of Enrolled Senate Bill No. 1 (Budget Bill), enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia, regular session, one thousand nine
hundred sixty-one, or any laws amendatory of, supplementary or
successor to, such program that may hereafter be enacted, shall not
be subject to suggestion under this article.
Public obligations, whether in the form of bonds, notes,
certificates of indebtedness, or otherwise, and whether negotiable
or nonnegotiable, shall not be subject to suggestion under this
WVC 38 - 5 B- 13 §38-5B-13. Accounting for moneys collected under suggestee
executions. It shall be the duty of the officer to whom a suggestee
execution shall be delivered to account for and pay over to the
person entitled thereto all moneys collected on such execution,
less his lawful fees and expenses for collecting the same. In
case of salaries, wages or other claims payable periodically,
such accounting and payment shall be made from time to time and
at least once every three months from the time a levy shall have
WVC 38 - 5 B- 14 §38-5B-14. Supreme court of appeals authorized to prescribe forms
of suggestee executions. In aid of the better administration of this article the
supreme court of appeals is hereby authorized to prescribe forms
of suggestee executions conformable to the provisions hereof.
Forms so prescribed shall be followed in the preparation of all
suggestee executions issued under this article from and after a
date to be fixed by the supreme court of appeals in promulgating
the same, which shall be not less than thirty nor more than
ninety days after their certification as hereinafter provided.
Copies of forms so prescribed shall be certified by the clerk of
the supreme court of appeals to the clerk of each court of record
in the state. It shall thereupon be the duty in turn of each
such clerk to furnish each court not of record within the
circuit, district, or other territorial area constituting the
territorial jurisdiction of his court, by registered mail, with
true copies of the forms and at the same time to inform such
court of the time when the action of the supreme court of appeals
in prescribing the forms shall take effect.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 15 §38-5B-15. Garnishment and suggestion of money and other
personality in hands of public officers. Money and other personal property in the hands of a sheriff,
constable, clerk of court, justice of the peace or other public
officer who shall hold the same by virtue of his office and which
belongs or is owed to any person shall be subject to garnishment
and suggestion in the same manner and to the same extent as if
held by him as a private individual, except that money or other
property which is in custodia legis shall be paid or delivered
into the court to abide the result of the suit, unless the court
shall otherwise direct. This section does not apply to public
property or funds.
WVC 38 - 5 B- 16 §38-5B-16. Construction of article; effect on existing law. Existing law governing the presentment, audit and allowance
of claims against the state, a state agency, or a political
subdivision is not affected hereby and the provisions hereof
shall not be deemed to permit payments in excess of
appropriations not otherwise permitted by law. This article is
remedial in purpose, however, and shall be liberally construed to