If a garnishee, personally summoned, shall fail to answer as required by law, or if a scire facias on a judgment nisi be executed on him, and he fail to show cause for vacating it, the court shall enter a judgment against him for the amount of plaintiff’s demand; and execution shall issue thereon, provided, however, that the garnishee may suspend the execution by filing a sworn declaration in said court showing the property and effects in his possession belonging to the debtor, and his indebtedness to the debtor, if any, or showing that there be none, if that be true; and by such act and upon a hearing thereon, the garnishee shall limit his liability to the extent of such property and effects in his hands, and such indebtedness due by him to the debtor, plus court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees of the judgment creditor in said garnishment action.
Miss. Code Ann. § 11-35-31
Garnishee’s failure to answer
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case 457 So. 2d 1333 - First Miss. Nat. Bank v. KLH INDUSTRIES (1984)
Most recently applied in Bechtel Power Corp. v. MMC Materials, Inc. (May 2002)
Codes, Hutchinson’s 1848, ch. 56, art. 4 (19), ch. 62, art. 7 (2); 1857, ch. 52, art. 25; 1871, § 1442; 1880, § 2446; 1892, § 2138; 1906, § 2345; Hemingway’s 1917, § 1940; 1930,…
How often courts cite this section
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.
Current official text: Mississippi Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Mississippi statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.