Quality Diesel Service, Inc. v. Tiger Drilling Company, LLC

190 So. 3d 860, 2016 Miss. LEXIS 2, 2016 WL 82482
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 7, 2016
Docket2014-CA-01587-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 190 So. 3d 860 (Quality Diesel Service, Inc. v. Tiger Drilling Company, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Quality Diesel Service, Inc. v. Tiger Drilling Company, LLC, 190 So. 3d 860, 2016 Miss. LEXIS 2, 2016 WL 82482 (Mich. 2016).

Opinions

DICKINSON, Presiding Justice,

for the Court:

¶ 1. This case presents an issue of first impression concerning Mississippi’s garnishment law: When a party gets a judgment, timely executes a writ of garnishment, and timely initiates a garnishment proceeding, is that party required to renew the underlying judgment to • collect the “property in the hands of the. garnishee, belonging to the defendant” at the time the garnishment proceeding was filed,1 to defeat the running of the statute of limitations? Because we hold that a party is not required to renew the underlying judgment to collect such property under these circumstances, we reverse and remand.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On January 5, 2004, Quality Diesel Service, Inc. (“Quality Diesel”) obtained a judgment against Gulf South Drilling Company, LLC (“Gulf South”), Then, after learning that Tiger Drilling Company, LLC (“Tiger Drilling”) was indebted to Gulf South in the amount of $1,717,390.21, Quality Diesel had writs of garnishment issued and served on Tiger Drilling on June 29, 2004; March 2, 2005; August 24, 2005; January 18, 2006; and October 6, 2006. All of Tiger Drilling’s answers to the writs were almost identical, stating that Tiger Drilling was indebted to Gulf South but that the debt was not yet due. On November 29, 2006, Quality Diesei contested Tiger Drilling’s responses by filing [862]*862a Petition to Controvert Answers to Garnishments, . specifically contesting Tiger Drilling’s answer to the writ issued on January 18, 2006.

¶ 3. On March 14, 2014, Tiger’ Drilling filed a motion to dismiss the garnishment proceeding. On October 3, 2014, the Rankin County Circuit Court granted dismissal on the ground that the underlying judgment had expired while the case was pending. On appeal, Quality Diesel contends that, because the underlying judgment was valid when" the writs of garnishment were issued and served — and when it filed its' Petition to Controvert — it can-maintain' a garnishment proceedirig against Tiger Drilling, despite the fact that the underlying judgment has since lapsed.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 4. A motion to dismiss raises a question of law.2 ’Questions of law are reviewed by this Court de novo3 “The scope of review of a motion to dismiss is that the allegations in, the complaint must be taken as true,- and the motion should not be granted unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff will be unable to prove any set of facts in support of his claim.”4 ' The same standard applies when this Court is tasked with determining whether a trial court’s granting a motion to dismiss was erroneous.5

DISCUSSION

A party who timely executes a writ of garnishment arid timely initiates a garnishment proceeding is' not required to renew the underlying judgment to collect the property that was in the hands of the garnishee at the time the writ of garnishment was served.

¶ 5. Quality Diesel presents us an issue of first impression. The trial court dismissed Quality Diesel’s petition because the underlying judgment — upon which the garnishment proceeding was based — had lapsed while the case was still pending. Specifically, the trial judge ruled:

Under Mississippi Code §§ 15-1-43 and 15-1-47, a judgment must be renewed within seven years after it is rendered, or it expires and ceases to be a lien on the judgment defendant’s property. Because Quality Diesel ’did not timely file any action or notice to renew its judgment against Gulf South, that judgment has expired. “A valid judgment tis essential to the validity of a garnishment proceeding, and when a judgment upon which a writ of garnishment is founded i[s] extinguished by the bar of the statute, the garnishment proceedings likewise fail.” As in Anderson-Tully, this “garnishment proceeding is no longer valid ,.. after lapsing of the judgment upon which [the] garnishment [was] issued,” and the ‘Court finds that this garnishment proceeding should be dismissed.6

,¶6. The statute sets a limit on when actions “shall be brought,” requiring that they be filed “within seven (7) years.”7 The statute does not. speak.to actions that were brought during the seven-year limita[863]*863tion period and, therefore, does not speak to the garnishment actions on the underlying judgment against Gulf South. Stated another way, the Hinds County Circuit Court rendered the relevant Mississippi judgment on January 5, 2004 — and seven years later — on January 5, 2011, that judgment lapsed as to any action not filed within the seven-year period.

¶ 7. Quality Diesel filed its Petition to Controvert on November 29, 2006 — well within the seven-year period. Quality Diesel also had five writs of garnishment issued and served on Tiger Drilling between 2004 and 2006 — again within the seven-year period. Contrary to the trial court’s order, the underlying judgment had not lapsed as to Quality Diesel’s timely issued writs of garnishment and timely filed garnishment contest.

¶8. Mississippi Code Section 15-1-47 states “a judgment or decree rendered in any court held in this state shall not be a lien on the property ... for a longer period than seven years from the rendition thereof, unless an action be brought thereon before the expiration of such time.”8 If an action is brought within seven years from the date the judgment was entered, then — in accordance with the unequivocal language of the statute — the lien on the judgment remains.9 Quality ' Diesel brought an action within the seven-year period. So the trial judge erred when he ruled that it “ceases to be a lien on the judgment defendant’s property.”

¶ 9. The clear language of the garnishment statute also contradicts the trial court’s ruling. “All property in the hands of the garnishee belonging to the defendant at the time of the service of the writ of garnishment shall be bound by and subject to the lien of the judgment, decree or attachment on which the writ shall have been issued.”10 ■ The proper inquiry, therefore, is whether - a valid underlying judgment existed at the time the writs of garnishment were served.’ The trial judge held the 'erroneous view that a valid underlying judgment must’ exist at the órne-he adjudicates the contest, even though the garnisher sought property possessed by the garnishee in 2006 — when it issued the writ — not in 2014, when the dispute reached the judge for adjudication. If the judge’s view were correct, the garnisher had to recover, or collect, within seven years under Section 15-1-47. ■ This view is simply not supported by the applicable statutes. Nor is it supported 'by any case-law from this Court.

¶ 10. ■ Tiger Drilling, however, argues that this Court’s prior holdings require the Court to affirm the dismissal. Jn Grace v. Pierce,- this Court held that “a valid judgment is essential to .the ¡validity of a garnishment proceeding.”11. .The facts in Grace, however, are easily distinguishable from those presented here., In Grace, the Court was presented, only with the question of whether the issuance of the writs of garnishment — by itself — tolled the statute of limitations.12

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Bluebook (online)
190 So. 3d 860, 2016 Miss. LEXIS 2, 2016 WL 82482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/quality-diesel-service-inc-v-tiger-drilling-company-llc-miss-2016.