WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
Introduced
Senate Bill 261
By Senator Trump
[Introduced February 10,
2017; referred
to the Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on the
Judiciary]
A BILL to amend and reenact §38-5B-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to suggestions of salary and wages of persons engaged in public employment; increasing the amount of salary or wages of persons engaged in public employment that are protected from a suggestee execution from thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage then in effect to fifty times the federal minimum hourly wage then in effect; requiring judgment creditor to provide additional personal information about the judgment debtor including the last four digits of Social Security number and date of birth; and making technical changes.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §38-5B-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5B. SUGGESTION OF THE STATE AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS; GARNISHMENT AND SUGGESTION OF PUBLIC OFFICERS.
§38-5B-2. Application for suggestee execution against money from state, state agency or political subdivision; extent of lien and continuing levy; priority among suggestee executions.
(a) A judgment creditor may apply to the court in which
the judgment was recovered or a court having jurisdiction of the same, without
notice to the judgment debtor, for a suggestee execution against any money due
or to become due within one year after the issuance of the same to the judgment
debtor from the state, a state agency, or any political subdivision of the state.
If satisfactory proof shall be is made, by affidavit or
otherwise, of such facts, and, where the execution is sought against salary or
wages, of the fact that the amount due or to become due as salary or wages
after the deduction of state and federal taxes exceeds in any week thirty
fifty times the federal minimum hourly wage then in effect, the court,
if not a court of record, or if a court of record, the clerk thereof, shall
issue a suggestee execution against such money due or to become due to the judgment
debtor, and there shall be entered on the face thereof the day and hour of
issuance.
Such The execution and the expenses thereof shall,
when served by the officer to whom delivered for collection in the manner
hereinafter provided, upon the state, a state agency or political subdivision
from which such money is due or may thereafter become due to the judgment
debtor, become a lien and continuing levy upon the sums due or to become due to
the judgment debtor within one year after the issuance of the same execution
(but not to exceed twenty per centum percent of the salary or
wages due to such the judgment debtor or reduce the amount
received by him or her per week to an amount less than thirty fifty
times the federal minimum hourly wage then in effect) unless sooner satisfied
and paid, vacated or modified as hereinafter provided.
Where more than one
suggestee execution shall have has been issued pursuant to the
provisions of this section against the same judgment debtor, they shall be
satisfied in the order of priority in which they are served upon the state,
state agency or political subdivision from which such the money
is due or shall becomes due. For purposes of determining such the
priority the time that an execution served by mail, as hereinafter provided shall
be is received, and not the time of admission of service shall
control. In the case of two or more executions received in the same mail
delivery priority shall be accorded the one first issued.
(b) The suggestee execution by the judgment creditor provided in this section shall include, to the extent possible, the present address, the last four digits of the Social Security number and date of birth of the judgment debtor, which information shall be made available for the purpose of properly identifying the judgment debtor whose salary or wages are being levied upon.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to increase the salary or wages of a judgment debtor, that may be exempt from execution by a judgment creditor, who is an employee of state, a state agency, or any political subdivision of the state, from 30 to 50 times the federal minimum hourly wage (then in effect). This increased exemption was changed for private employees who are judgment debtors during the 2016 Regular Session. Subsection (b) corresponds to language found in §38-5A-3, creating consistency for public and private employees. The bill also requires that the judgment creditor includes additional personal information about the judgment debtor such as last four digits of Social Security number and date of birth.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.