§ 9550 — Proceeding by garnishee charging collusion

(a) Any person summoned to answer under an execution attachment as a garnishee of another, to whom such person is indebted in a sum exceeding the amount cognizable before a justice of the peace, or any creditor of such garnishee, may, with the answer or plea admitting or denying such indebtedness, require the justice of the peace to enter upon his or her docket a plea that such attachment process has been taken against such garnishee by collusion between the plaintiff and the defendant in the judgment upon which such execution attachment is or shall be issued, and for a claim not actually due from such defendant, or confessed, contracted, incurred, or made for the occasion, or upon a judgment upon a claim, or for a debt made by dividing or splitting up a claim or debt not primarily cognizable by reason of its amount before a justice of the peace, for the purpose of bringing the same under or within the jurisdiction of a justice or justices of the peace.

(b) Upon such plea, as well as upon any plea of “nulla bona” entered in the cause, the justice shall enter an issue or issues, which shall be tried and determined as other cases cognizable before the justice.

(c) If either of the issues is found for the defendant, the garnishee judgment shall be entered against the attaching creditor for the costs, otherwise, it shall be entered as in other cases.

(d) Nothing in this section shall prevent the giving of a credit upon a claim, so as to reduce it to a sum within the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace.

Legislative History

14 Del. Laws, c. 92, §§ 1, 4 ; Code 1915, § 4024; Code 1935, § 4510; 10 Del. C. 1953, § 9557; 70 Del. Laws, c. 186, § 1