Title 34. Homestead and Other Exemptions
Chapter 4. Wages Exempt
§ 34-32. Illegal to garnish such exempt wages out of Commonwealth, etc.
No person shall institute or permit to be instituted proceedings in his own name or in the name of any other person or shall assign or transfer, either for or without value, any claim for debt or liability of any kind held by him against a resident of the Commonwealth who is a laboring person and a householder for the purpose of having payment of the same or any part thereof enforced out of the wages exempted by § 34-29 by proceedings in attachment or garnishment in courts or before magistrates in any other state than the Commonwealth, or to send out of the Commonwealth by assignment, transfer or in any other manner whatsoever, either for or without value, any claim or debt against any resident thereof for the purpose or with the intent of depriving such person of the right to have his wages exempt from distress, levy or garnishment according to the provisions of § 34-29. And the person instituting such suit or permitting such suit to be instituted or sending, assigning, or transferring any such claim or debt for the purpose or with the intent aforesaid shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not less than $10 nor more than $100 and shall, in addition thereto, be civilly liable to the person from whom payment of the same, or any part thereof, shall have been enforced by attachment or garnishment or otherwise, elsewhere than in the Commonwealth, for the full amount, payment whereof shall have been so enforced, together with interest thereon and the costs of the attachment or garnishee proceedings, as well as the costs of such action.
The amount recovered in such action shall stand on the same footing with the wages of the plaintiff under § 34-29 and shall be exempt and free from any and all liability of the plaintiff to the defendant in the way of setoff or otherwise.
The fact that the payment of a claim or debt against any person entitled to the exemption provided for in § 34-29 has been enforced by legal proceedings in some state other than the Commonwealth in such manner as to deprive such person to any extent of the benefit of such exemption shall be prima facie evidence that any resident of the Commonwealth who may at any time have been owner or holder of the claim or debt has violated this section.
Code 1919, § 6557; 1954, c. 613; 1974, c. 272; 2005, c. 839.
