812.21.Release of garnishment; bond.

Section 812.21 gives a defendant a way to free up garnisheed property before the case is fully resolved, by substituting a bond for the property itself. The defendant may file a bond with the clerk, backed by at least two sureties who are resident freeholders of the state, promising to pay the plaintiff whatever judgment is ultimately recovered, up to a ceiling of one and a half times the debt named in the garnishee complaint, or a lesser amount the court sets. If the plaintiff never contests the garnishee’s answer, the bond instead promises to pay whatever debt or property value the garnishee admitted.

The sureties cannot sign the bond and leave it there; they must justify their financial capacity by affidavit, each stating what they are worth in in-state property above their own liabilities and exempt property, with the combined total reaching double the bond amount. The defendant serves the plaintiff a copy of the bond and notice of where it was filed, and the plaintiff has three days to object to the sureties’ sufficiency; staying silent waives any objection. If the plaintiff does object, the sureties must justify themselves the same way bail sureties do on an arrest, under the statutes governing that process.

Once the sureties clear that hurdle, the payoff is complete: the garnishee is discharged, the garnishment proceedings are treated as discontinued, any money or property already paid or delivered to an officer is returned to whoever is entitled to it, and if the plaintiff ultimately recovers, the costs of this whole bond process are taxable as the plaintiff’s disbursements.