Opinion ID: 1058572
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Effective date of the Fieri Facias Lien

Text: The Firms' final assignment of error is that the circuit court erred in holding the Code § 8.01-501 lien could attach to the funds in the trust accounts without regard to service of the notice of lien upon anyone. The circuit court actually ruled in its opinion letter that: According to Code § 8.01-501, the lien of fieri facias was effective on the date it was delivered to the sheriff, which the parties agree was October 7, 2005. The court then cited the statute, which provides: Every writ of fieri facias shall . . . be a lien from the time it is delivered to a sheriff . . . on all the personal estate of or to which the judgment debtor is . . . possessed or entitled. Code § 8.01-501 (emphasis added). The Firms' only argument to the circuit court was that the lien was not effective as to them because of the failure to serve the notice of lien under Code § 8.01-502. Otherwise, the Firms conceded the effective attachment of the fieri facias lien before the circuit court. [A]lthough the lien became effectivewas created I guess is a better way to put it, statewide territorial lien on intangible property was created when that writ of execution was placed in the hands of the Virginia Beach sheriff on October 7th, it was not binding upon, it was not effective against the two law firms until all the procedures set forth in [Code §] 8.01-502 were met. Having failed in their argument under Code § 8.01-502, as just addressed above, the Firms made no other argument in the circuit court that related to any notice defect in the garnishment. [7] Moreover, the Firms' argument that there was no service of notice of the fieri facias lien is contrary to the law of this case. As noted previously, the circuit court found as a fact that the Firms had been served on October 7, 2005, the same date the fieri facias writ was delivered to the sheriff and the Firms assigned no error to that finding. Whether failure to have made service on the Firms upon the day of the delivery of the writ to the sheriff would have affected the lien under Code § 8.01-501 is not an issue before the court in this case. Accordingly, as the provisions of Code 8.01-502 did not apply to the Firms, the circuit court did not err in finding the lien of the writ of fieri facias became effective against the Firms as of October 7, 2005.