§ 8.01-539.Who made defendants.

An attachment proceeding can involve more parties than a typical lawsuit, and this section sorts out their roles. The person the plaintiff is pursuing, the one who owes the debt or committed the wrong, is the “principal defendant.”

Because attachment often means reaching property or money in someone else’s hands, the section also requires joining anyone who owes the principal defendant money, or who holds property belonging to him, that the plaintiff wants attached. A bank holding the principal defendant’s account, or an employer owing him wages, fits this description and must be brought into the case. The plaintiff may also, though is not required to, join anyone claiming title to, an interest in, or a lien upon the property targeted for attachment, letting competing claimants sort out priority in the same proceeding.

Every defendant besides the principal defendant goes by a single label: “codefendant.” That terminology matters elsewhere in the chapter, since other sections in this article distinguish what the principal defendant can do, like demurring or answering to defeat the attachment, from what codefendants can do.