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Fla. Stat. § 77.031

Issuance of writ before judgment

Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case Frio Ice, SA v. SunFruit (1989)

Most recently applied in 88 F. Supp. 3d 1300 - APR Energy, LLC v. First Investment Group Corp. (February 2015)

History.--s. 11, ch. 43, 1845; RS 1680; s. 1, ch. 4393, 1895; GS 2144; s. 2, ch. 6910, 1915; RGS 3446; CGL 5299; s. 2, ch. 29737, 1955; s. 27, ch. 67-254; s. 1, ch. 83-97; s. 8,…

How often courts cite this section

19751980199020002010201510
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

Before judgment has been obtained by the plaintiff against the defendant:

(1) A writ of garnishment shall be issued by the court or by the clerk on order of the court.

(2) To obtain issuance of the writ, the plaintiff, or the plaintiff’s agent or attorney, shall file in the court where the action is pending a verified motion or affidavit alleging by specific facts the nature of the cause of action; the amount of the debt and that the debt for which the plaintiff sues is just, due, and unpaid; that the garnishment is not sued out to injure either the defendant or the garnishee; and that the plaintiff believes that the defendant will not have in his or her possession, after execution is issued, tangible or intangible property in this state and in the county in which the action is pending on which a levy can be made sufficient to satisfy the plaintiff’s claim. The writ of garnishment shall set forth a notice to the defendant of the right to an immediate hearing for dissolution of such writ pursuant to s. 77.07. Upon issuance of the writ of garnishment, the clerk of the court shall provide by mail a copy of the writ to the defendant.

(3) Except when the plaintiff has had an attachment writ issued, no writ of garnishment before judgment shall issue until the plaintiff, or the plaintiff’s agent or attorney, gives a bond with surety to be approved by the clerk payable to the defendant in at least double the amount of the debt demanded, conditioned to pay all costs, damages, and attorney’s fees that the defendant sustains in consequence of the plaintiff’s improperly suing out the writ of garnishment. A garnishment bond is not void or voidable because of an informality in it, nor shall the obligors be discharged because of the informality, even though the garnishment is dissolved because of the informality.

(4) The motion or pleading need not negative any exemptions of the defendant.

Official source: Online Sunshine (Florida Legislature). Reproduced from public-domain Florida statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.