§ 25-1564.Property of debtor other than lands and chattels subject to payment of judgment.

Execution against a judgment debtor’s land and goods does not always produce enough to pay a judgment. Section 25-1564 opens the door to a broader category of assets when that happens. Where a judgment debtor has no personal or real property subject to levy on execution sufficient to satisfy the judgment, the statute reaches interests that ordinary levy cannot touch directly: an interest in a banking, turnpike, bridge, or other joint-stock company; money, contracts, claims, or choses in action due or to become due to the debtor; an interest in a judgment or decree; and money, goods, or effects the debtor has in the possession of another person or entity.

These assets become subject to the judgment either through proceedings in equity or through the procedures the rest of this chapter lays out, most notably the debtor-examination process that begins with section 25-1565. In effect, section 25-1564 is the threshold statute: it tells a judgment creditor what additional category of property is fair game, while the sections that follow supply the mechanics for finding out what the debtor holds and applying it to the judgment.

A "chose in action" is a legal right to recover money or property through a lawsuit rather than something already in hand, such as a debt owed to the judgment debtor by someone else. By including choses in action and money owed to the debtor, the statute makes clear that a judgment creditor is not limited to seizing physical property; the creditor can also reach what the debtor is entitled to collect from others.