Opinion ID: 1059614
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: garnishment procedures

Text: Under Virginia law, a judgment creditor can enforce a judgment for money by requesting the clerk of the court where the judgment was rendered to issue a writ of fieri facias and then by delivering that writ to a proper person of the court for execution. Code § 8.01-466. See also Code § 8.01-465.2 (foreign judgment properly filed with clerk is subject to same procedures as judgments rendered by circuit court). The writ commands the officer to make the money therein mentioned out of the goods and chattels of the person against whom the judgment is. Code § 8.01-474. See also Code § 8.01-478 (writ of fieri facias may be levied on the goods and chattels of the judgment debtor). When property of a judgment debtor is not capable of being levied on, as in the case of intangible personal property, such property is nevertheless subject to the execution lien upon delivery of the writ to a sheriff or other officer. Code § 8.01-501; Virginia Nat'l Bank v. Blofeld, 234 Va. 395, 399, 362 S.E.2d 692, 694 (1987). Garnishment, like other lien enforcement remedies authorizing seizure of property, is a creature of statute unknown to the common law, and hence the provisions of the statute must be strictly satisfied. See Long v. Ryan, 71 Va. (30 Gratt.) 718, 724 (1878); Mantz v. Hendley, 12 Va. (2 Hen. & M.) 308, 315 (1808). As pertinent here, a judgment creditor can institute garnishment proceedings if there is a liability on a third person to the judgment debtor. Code § 8.01-511. Accord Blofeld, 234 Va. at 399, 362 S.E.2d at 694. Liability in this context means a legal obligat[ion], enforceable by civil remedy, a financial or pecuniary obligation, or a debt. Black's Law Dictionary 925 (7th ed.1999). Accord Webster's Third New International Dictionary 1302 (1993)(an amount that is owed ...[;] pecuniary obligations...[;] debts). [A] proceeding in garnishment is substantially an action at law by the judgment debtor in the name of the judgment creditor against the garnishee, and therefore the judgment creditor stands upon no higher ground than the judgment debtor and can acquire no greater right than such debtor... possesses. Lynch v. Johnson, 196 Va. 516, 521, 84 S.E.2d 419, 422 (1954). A garnishment summons does not create a lien itself, but, instead, is a means of enforcing the lien of an execution placed in the hands of an officer to be levied. Knight v. The Peoples Nat'l Bank of Lynchburg, 182 Va. 380, 392, 29 S.E.2d 364, 370 (1944).