COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

H. B. 2586


(By Delegates Beane, Gallagher, Manuel and Johnson)


(Originating in the House Committee on the Judiciary)

[February 28, 1995]



A BILL to amend and reenact sections four and five, article five-a, chapter thirty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to suggestions of salary and wages; prescribing the method of service of a notice of execution on a judgment debtor and of a suggestee execution on a suggestee; increasing the fee which may be charged for serving a notice on a judgment debtor; allowing service of a suggestee execution on a suggestee by certified mail or by the sheriff; permitting a clerk to issue a suggestion in the county where the judgment is entered and to mail it to the sheriff of another county for service; and making technical and grammatical corrections.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections four and five, article five-a, chapter thirty- eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5A. SUGGESTIONS OF SALARY AND WAGES OF PERSONS ENGAGED IN PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT.

§38-5A-4. Notice to judgment debtor; time for service on suggestee; fee.

A certified copy of an execution issued under this article against salary or wages shall be served upon the judgment debtor. Such service shall be made by the court or the clerk of the court who issued the execution by enclosing the copy in a postpaid wrapper addressed mailing the copy to the judgment debtor or his agent authorized to accept service of process and forwarding the same by certified mail, return receipt requested. The day and hour of such mailing shall be clearly noted on the face of the original execution and the clerk of the court or the officer to whom it is delivered for collection shall not make service upon the suggestee until the expiration of five days from that time. The fee for service of notice under this section shall be twenty- five cents without any one dollar and an additional allowance for postage, certification fee, or other expenses incurred in effecting service.
§38-5A-5. Service of suggestee execution upon suggestee; payments in satisfaction of execution; action for failure or refusal to pay; payments to be made every ninety days.

A suggestee execution issued under this article against salary or wages shall be served upon the suggestee in the same manner as a summons commencing an action is served. (a) Service of a suggestee execution against salary or wages may be made by the clerk of the circuit court or the magistrate court clerk, as the case may be, by sending a copy of the suggestee execution to the suggestee by certified mail, return receipt requested, with delivery restricted to the addressee. If the registered mail is unclaimed, or otherwise is not accepted or is refused by the suggestee, then service of the suggestee execution shall be made in the same manner as a summons commencing an action is served, in accordance with the rules of civil procedure for trial courts of record: Provided, That if the suggestee is located in a county other than the county where the suggestee execution issues, the clerk may mail the suggestee execution by first class mail to the sheriff of the other county for such service. It shall be the duty of any person upon whom such an execution, bearing the notation required by section four hereof, shall be served, and who shall at that time be indebted or who shall thereafter become indebted to the judgment debtor named in the execution for salary or wages, and while the execution shall remain a lien upon said indebtedness, to pay over to the officer serving the same or to the judgment creditor such amount of said indebtedness as is required by section three hereof during the life of the execution until it shall be wholly satisfied. The sums so paid shall be deducted from the amounts payable to the judgment debtor and such payment shall be a bar to any action by him therefor.
(b) If the suggestee served with the execution is indebted or will in the future become indebted to the judgment debtor for salary or wages, then during the time the execution remains a lien on any indebtedness for salary and wages, the suggestee is required to pay over to the officer serving the same or to the judgment creditor the percentage of the indebtedness required by section three of this article, until the execution is wholly satisfied. The suggestee shall deduct the amounts paid from the amounts payable to the judgment debtor as salary or wages, and the deduction of these amounts is a bar to any further action by the judgment creditor against the wages or salary of the judgment debtor.
The (c) Once every ninety days during the life of such execution and any renewal execution, the 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 to the officer who served the same or to the judgment creditor the full amount of money held or retained pursuant to such execution or renewal execution during the preceding ninety days.
If the suggestee upon whom the execution shall be is served, shall fail or refuse fails or refuses to pay over to the officer serving the execution or to the judgment creditor the required percentage of the indebtedness, as aforesaid, he or she 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 in satisfaction of the execution.