Legal Question in Landlord & Tenant Law in Virginia

How to stop wage garnishment on default judgment?

My fiance was coerced by the Landlord to co-signed on a lease for 2 friends, which they broke. Landlord had my fiance improperly served a summons at the property address where he never lived, for breach of lease. He obtained a default judgment for $2700 & is now garnishing his wages. We tried to get the default judgment vacated but the judge believed the landlord who lied throughout the entire proceeding. Now we have a Wage Garnishment Summons hearing set for Dec.12. Is there anything that can be done to get around this judge's unfair ruling and stop this garnishment from proceeding? This Landlord is dishonest & is not entitled to this money. My fiance never occupied the property and the judge even agreed on this. Landlord had him served there knowing he would not receive notice of summons and he would get a default judgment. Is there any point in attending this garnishment summons hearing or should we just not show up and let the garnishment continue? We feel this is very unfair as the Landlord went after my fiance instead of the actual tenants as he has a good job and knew he could get money out of him. Please advise. We feel sometimes there is no justice in the legal system and the judge's ruling was very unfair.


Asked on 12/06/06, 7:56 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Hendrickson Law Office Michael E. Hendrickson

Re: How to stop wage garnishment on default judgment?

If your fiance co-signed the lease, he's responsible for all monies owed under the lease which remain due and owing. However, if he was never properly served with papers notifying him of the pending court action against him, that is another issue which apparently a general district court judge decided in the landlord's favor. If your fiance strongly disagreed with that decision, he should've filed his appeal of it to the circuit court. (10 days to file such after verdict.)

Now, it's likely too late to attack the underlying judgment upon which the current garnishment is based. The garnishment summons hearing will likely be narrowly constrained to address issues having only to do with whether the garnishment has been correctly implemented, meaning that no more than 25% of your fiance's income is being taken after all mandatory deductions.

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Answered on 12/07/06, 10:46 am


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