Rule 90.14.Garnishment of Wages in Aid of Attachment.

Attachment is a way of tying up a defendant’s property before judgment, and Rule 90.14 restricts one particular use of it — garnishing wages before the defendant has even been personally served. As a general rule, no wages can be garnished in aid of attachment until the defendant has been personally served, unless the suit falls into one of three categories: it is brought in the county where the defendant lives; it is brought in the county where the debt was contracted and the cause of action arose or accrued; or, in cities with more than one hundred thousand residents, it is brought in the city where the defendant lives or where the debt was contracted and the cause of action arose.

Because those exceptions turn on where the defendant lives and where the debt arose, the rule requires the petition and the writ of attachment themselves to state both facts — the place where the defendant resides and the place where the debt was contracted and the cause of action arose or accrued. That way, anyone reviewing the filing can confirm whether the case fits within one of the permitted categories before wages get garnished without personal service.

Rule 90.14 also protects wages earned and paid outside Missouri. When the cause of action arose outside the state, wages earned out of state and payable out of state are exempt from attachment-based garnishment altogether — unless the defendant is personally served with process in the attachment suit. Personal service, in other words, removes both the general bar on garnishing before service and this out-of-state wage exemption.