Garnishments Are Alive and Well in Texas



Posted: Monday, August 16, 2010

by Harvey Cox
Harvey L. Cox Attorney at Law

Although Texas doesn't allow a judgment creditor to garnish your wages directly from your employer, Texas law does allow your bank accounts to be garnished. Consequently, once you deposit your paycheck into a bank account, that account may be frozen if your judgment creditor applies to the court for a writ of garnishment of your accounts. In reality, your judgment creditor can get to your bank deposits regardless of the name on the account if the funds in the account are payable to you. Frankfurt's Texas Investment Corp. v. Trinity Savings & Loan Ass'n, 414 S.W.2d 190, 195 (Tex. Civ. App- Dallas 1967, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

Your judgment creditor may also get to your bank account even if community property funds are in the account. Tatum State Bank v. Gibson, 24 S.W.2d 506, 507 (Tex. Civ. App.-Texarkana 1930, no writ); Brooks v. Sherry Lane National Bank, 788 S.W.2d 874, 876 (Tex. App.-Dallas 1990, no writ). But, bank accounts aren't the only property you may own that are subject to garnishment. Other regularly garnished assets are:

a. Safe-deposit boxes

Your judgment creditor may get to the contents of your safe-deposit box even if your bank does not know what's in the box. Blanks v. Radford, 188 S.W.2d 879, 886 (Tex. Civ. App.-Eastland 1945, writ ref'd w.o.m.).

b. Stock

Every stock you hold is expressly subject to garnishment under Tex. R. Civ. P. 669.

c. Promissory note

If another person is repaying you money on a promissory note to you, that note can be garnished. Thompson v. Gainesville National Bank, 18 S.W. 350 (Tex. 1886); Davis v. First National Bank, 135 S.W.2d 259, 261 (Tex. Civ. App.- Waco 1939, no writ). In other words, your debtor on the note will have to make the payments to your judgment creditor.

d. A Trust fund to which you are a beneficiary

Property in a trust fund and the income from trust funds can be garnished. The only exception is when the trust fund is a spend-thrift trust. Nunn v. Titche-Goettinger Co., 245 S.W. 421, 422-23 (Tex. Comm'n App. 1922, judgm't adopted); Bank of Dallas v. Republic National Bank of Dallas, 540 S.W.2d 499, 501-02 (Tex. Civ. App.-Waco 1976, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

e. Judgments You Possess

If you're a judgment creditor in another matter, that judgment may be garnished. Industrial Indemnity Co. v. Texas American Bank-Riverside, 784 S.W.2d 114, 119-120 (Tex. App.-Fort Worth 1990, no writ). In other words, your judgment debtor in that matter will pay your judgment creditor in the matter in which you are the judgment debtor.

Consequently, simply because Texas doesn't permit your wages to be garnished to collect a judgment, never suppose you are totally immune to additional types of garnishment. An aggressive judgment creditor has lots of choices available to enforce a judgment against you.
This Article has been viewed 272 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
No comments yet.
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.