CHAPTER 341
AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 35, TITLE 10, DELAWARE CODE, RELATING TO ATTACHMENTS.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Delaware:
Section 1. Chapter 35, Delaware Code, is hereby amended by striking out all of said chapter (incorporating § 3501 through § 3531) and substituting in lieu thereof a new chapter 35 to read as follows:
CHAPTER 35. ATTACHMENTS
§ 3501. Domestic attachment; when writ may be issued
A writ of domestic attachment may be issued against an inhabitant of this State upon proof satisfactory to the Court that the defendant cannot be found, or that the defendant is justly indebted to the plaintiff in a sum exceeding $50, and has absconded from his usual place of abode or is about to leave the State or has gone out of the State with intent to defraud his creditors or to elude process.
§ 3502. Corporations subject to attachment and garnishment
All corporations doing business in this State, except banks, savings institutions and loan associations, are subject to the operations of the attachment laws of this State, as provided in case of individuals. Insurance companies shall not be liable to attachment, except only as to moneys due in consequence of the happening of the risk provided for in a policy of insurance. A corporation shall be liable to be summoned as garnishee.
§ 3503. Public officers and employees subject to attachment and garnishment
(a) The attachment laws of this State shall apply to employees of the State, or of any county, district or municipality with the same force and effect as they apply to other individuals. Any officer of the State, or of any county, district or municipality, whose duty it is to pay such employees compensation from funds of the State, county, district or municipality for any services rendered by such employees to the State, county, district or municipality may be summoned to appear and answer as other garnishees are required to do.
(b) The term "employee" as used in subjection (a) of this section includes any and every person performing any and every form of labor and work for the State, county, district or municipality for compensation.
§ 3504. Unincorporated associations subject to attachment and garnishment
(a) A writ of attachment may be issued in any action brought against any unincorporated association of persons using a common name, ordinary partnership excepted, transacting business in this State by such common name.
(b) Any sheriff, constable or other officer, executing any writ of attachment under the provisions of this section may attach the lands and tenements, goods and chattels, rights and credits, and monies and effects of the defendant association and may also attach the lands and tenements, goods and chattels, rights and credits, and monies and effects of any or all of the individuals composing such association in the same manner as if they had been made parties defendant by their individual names.
§ 3505. Worthless checks or unpaid settlement memoranda, issuance of
A writ of attachment may be issued in any action brought against any person, who has issued a worthless check against an account in which there are not sufficient funds to pay such check, or where the person has issued slips or memoranda in settlements, which have not been paid.
§ 3506. Foreign attachment against individuals
proof satisfactory to the Court that the defendant cannot be found, that the defendant resides out of the State, and that plaintiff has a good cause of action against the defendant in a sum exceeding $50.
§ 3507. Foreign attachment against foreign corporations
A writ of foreign attachment may be issued against any corporation, aggregate or sole, not created by or existing under the laws of this State upon proof satisfactory to the Court that the defendant is a corporation not created by, or existing under the laws of this State, and that the plaintiff has a good cause of action against the defendant in an amount exceeding $50.
§ 3508. Property subject to attachment
Goods, chattels, rights, credits, monies, effects, lands and tenements may be attached under the provisions of this chapter.
§ 3509. Proceedings against garnishees
If any garnishee, duly summoned shall not appear as required, he may be compelled, by attachment, to appear and answer or plead. The plaintiff may be compelled to pay a fee to the garnishee in such amount as may be fixed from time to time by rule of the Superior Court.
§ 3510. Capias against garnishee
If it be shown to the Court that any garnishee, summoned or to be summoned thereon, is not an inhabitant of the county where the attachment is pending, or is about to leave the county, then a capias may issue against such garnishee to hold him to bail for his appearance at court to answer or plead.
§ 3511. Effect of sales
All sales under this chapter shall be good against the defendant, his or its executors, administrators and assigns. Any transfer or assignment of the property after attachment shall be void, and after the sale of the property is made and confirmed the purchaser shall be entitled to and have all the right, title and interest of the defendant in and to the property so attached and sold, and such sale and confirmation shall transfer to the purchaser all the right, title and interest of the defendant in and to the property as fully as if the defendant had transferred the same to the purchaser in accordance with law. If action is brought against any officer or other person acting under the authority of this chapter, it shall be a good defense that his act was done in compliance with this chapter and in accordance with the applicable rules of court.
§ 3512. Authority of Superior Court to make rules respecting attachments
The Superior Court may make all necessary rules respecting the form of process, the manner of issuance and return thereof, modes of proof, manner of seizure of property, sale of perishable property, appointment and duties of auditors, the release of property from attachment and the sale of property so seized, and all other matters relating to attachment proceedings, and may require the plaintiff to give approved security to indemnify the defendant for his costs, losses and damages resulting from the attachment,
§ 3513. Jurisdiction of Superior Court and applicability of Superior Court Rules to attachment by Justices of the Peace and other inferior courts
Except where otherwise expressly provided, the rules of the Superior Court shall govern the procedures in all attachments issued by justices of the peace and other inferior courts. The Superior Court, upon the motion of any defendant or tenant whose property, rights or credits may be attached under any measure process of attachment issued by a justice of the peace or other inferior court, shall investigate the proofs required by law to be made and filed before the issuing of such process. If upon such investigation the court considers that there was not sufficient grounds for the attachment, the property, rights and credits attached shall be discharged.
Section 2. This Act shall not affect any proceeding instituted prior to the effective date hereof, and as to such proceedings the provisions in effect immediately prior to the effective date of this Act shall apply. Until the Superior Court promulgates rules governing the procedure on attachment, the provisions in force immediately prior to the effective date of this Act shall continue to apply.
Approved July 9, 1960.