812.19.Nonliability as garnishee; judgment when rendered.

Section 812.19 protects certain relationships and situations from garnishment liability entirely. No one is liable as a garnishee just because they drew, accepted, made, endorsed, or guaranteed a negotiable instrument, or because they received or collected something through execution or other legal process, or because they hold money as a public officer, or because they owe something only upon a contingency that has not yet occurred. These carve-outs keep garnishment from reaching relationships that are too indirect, too official, or too uncertain to attach.

The section then addresses financial institutions specifically. When the garnishee is a financial institution holding or owing property subject to garnishment, its liability is capped at the garnishable amount in the account, measured as of the time the institution is first reasonably able to put the garnishment into effect, but no later than the end of the second business day after receiving the garnishee summons and complaint. Property that leaves the institution’s possession before it can act is not subject to the garnishment, and the institution bears no duty to chase it down and no liability for it.

Two more specific protections round out the section. Property sitting in a safe deposit box is not treated as property in the bank or safe deposit company’s possession or control for garnishment purposes. And a debt owed by the owner of property subject to a construction lien is not treated as absolutely due until the claims of the subcontractors and employees behind that lien have matured or expired. Subject to all of these limits, the section closes by confirming that judgment can still be entered for something owing even if it is not yet due, in which case the garnishee is not required to pay or deliver it before the time the underlying contract calls for.