GARNISHMENT:

By: Solomon Schechter, Lewis N. Dembitz

In law, the process by which A collects his demand from his debtor, B, by attaching money owing to B from a third person; hence called "Dritt-Arrest" in German law. The power of a court to enforce a judgment against B by collecting the debt of C to B and paying it to A, the judgment creditor, is asserted in a baraita (Ket. 19a) by R. Nathan, who rather quaintly derives the rule from Num. v. 7. This rule is found in the codes ("Yad," Malweh, ii. 6; Shulḥan 'Aruk, Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 86, 1-4). The process, however, is not to be resorted to until the court has found that B has no money, goods, or lands from which to satisfy the debt, just as in the law of most American states the garnishment process is used only after a return of "no property."

According to later opinions, first found in the Arba' Ṭurim and in Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ, 101, 5, a shorter process is allowed when the debtor holds a bond of a third person. The court may have it appraised, taking into consideration not only the third person's degree of solvency, but also his character (as a stubborn litigant or otherwise), and may turn the bond over to the creditor after the appraisement. The commentary "Be'er ha-Golah" on Ḥoshen Mishpaṭ expresses disapprobation of this course of procedure, but admits that it is well established in practise.

S. S. L. N. D.