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29 Pa. 264

Catlin v. Ensign

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided November 3, 1857

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1857-11-03

<p>The wages of labour, or the salary of a public or private employment, is exempted from execution attachment by the Act of 15th April, 1845.</p> <p>The proviso to the 5th section of that act applies to all judgments, whether entered in the Common Pleas or on the docket of a justice of the peace.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1857-11-03

How this case has been cited

Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently October 1980

1 federal appellate · 1 district · 11 state decisions

3018571860187018801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered,

by Knox, J.

¶2The First Presbyterian Church of the city of Erie *265was indebted to Henry Catlin in the sum of $75 for one year’s salary as chorister, which sum was set apart by the board of trustees of the church for the payment of the debt, and was in the hands of the treasurer of the trustees.

¶3Upon a judgment in the Common Pleas in favour of D. P. Ensign v. Henry Catlin, an execution attachment was issued against the defendant, and the money due him from the church was attached in the hands of the treasurer, against whom, as garnishee, the court below rendered judgment for the amount admitted by the answers to the interrogatories to be in his hands.

¶4This judgment cannot be sustained. The proviso to the fifth section of the Act of the 15th April, 1845, declares “ that the wages of any labourer, or the salary of any person in public or private employment, shall not be liable.to attachment in the hands of the employer.”

¶5This provision applies to all judgments, whether entered in the Common Pleas or on the docket of a justice of the peace; and the case in hand comes within the second member of the proviso. The money attached was for the salary due to a person in private employment, and was, therefore, not attachable.

¶6Judgment reversed, and judgment in favour of garnishee for costs.

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