Rule 90.10.Discharge of Garnishee--Judgment in Garnishment.

Rule 90.10 addresses the two ways a garnishment case can end for the garnishee. If the garnishee’s interrogatory answers admit that it holds property belonging to the debtor, the garnishee does not need a further court order to act — it must pay or deliver that property into court, or to the attorney for the garnishor, within ten days after the writ’s return date, or, for a continuous wage garnishment, within ten days after the end of each pay period covered by the garnishment. Making that payment or delivery on time discharges the garnishee from any further liability on the property it handed over.

The picture changes when the garnishor files exceptions to the garnishee’s answers, or when a third party has intervened under Rule 90.09. In that situation, the court or a jury has to decide all the contested issues — whatever the garnishor’s exceptions raise, whatever the garnishee says in response, and whatever claim an intervening third party asserts. The court then enters judgment based on those findings and orders that any property not already delivered be handed over, or paid into court or to the garnishor’s attorney, within whatever time the court sets.

Failing to comply with that follow-up order carries a real consequence: if the property is not delivered or paid over as directed, the court may enter judgment against the garnishee for the value of the property. That possibility gives the garnishee a strong incentive to comply once the contested issues have been resolved, instead of holding on to property a court has already ordered turned over.