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Endicott Co. v. Encyclopedia Press

U.S.
Nov 17, 1924
266 U.S. 285 (1924)

Summary

In Endicott-Johnson, the Supreme Court considered a claim by a judgment debtor that he was entitled to additional predeprivation procedures prior to the garnishment of his wages.

Summary of this case from Revis v. Meldrum

Opinion

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

No. 41.

Submitted October 7, 1924. Decided November 17, 1924.

1. Due process of law does not require that a judgment debtor, who had his day in court before the judgment was rendered, shall be given additional notice and opportunity to be heard before issuance of a garnishment to satisfy the judgment. P. 288. 2. A statute (N.Y. Code Civ. Proc., § 1391,) providing for an execution which, when served on the employer of a judgment debtor, becomes a lien and continuing levy on a percentage of future wages of the latter, requiring the former to pay them to the officer as they become due or be liable to an action therefor by the judgment creditor in which the recovery shall be applied upon the execution, does not deprive the garnishee or the judgment debtor of property without due process of law by interference with their liberty of contract. P. 290. 3. Nor does such procedure impair any substantial constitutional right of the garnishee because it entails additional expense of bookkeeping. Id. 4. The contention that such a statute is void because contrary to public policy does not present a federal question. Id. 200 A.D. 847; 234 N.Y. 627, affirmed.

ERROR to a judgment of the Supreme Court of New York, entered on remittitur from the Court of Appeals, affirming a judgment against a garnishee.

Mr. Maurice E. Page for plaintiff in error.

Mr. Thomas B. Merchant for defendant in error.


This case involves the constitutional validity of § 1391 of the New York Code of Civil Procedure relating to the garnishment of wages and other choses in action of a judgment debtor.

This section of the Code, as amended by the Laws of 1919, c. 278, provides that where a judgment has been recovered and an execution thereon returned unsatisfied, the judgment creditor may apply to the court without notice to the judgment debtor, and on satisfactory proof that any wages, debts, earnings, salary, income from trust funds or profits, are, or will thereafter become, due and owing to the judgment debtor, to the amount of twelve dollars or more per week, a judge or justice shall order that an execution issue against such wages, etc., of the judgment debtor. On presentation of such execution by the collecting officer to the person from whom such wages, etc., are or may become due and owing, the execution shall become a lien and continuing levy upon such wages, etc., to the amount specified in the execution, not exceeding ten per centum thereof, until the execution is fully satisfied. Any person to whom the execution is presented, who is or becomes indebted to the judgment debtor, shall, while the execution remains a lien upon the indebtedness, pay over to the officer the amount of the indebtedness prescribed by the execution until it is wholly satisfied; and such payment shall be a bar to any action therefor by the judgment debtor. If such person fails or refuses to pay over to the officer the percentage of such indebtedness, he shall be liable to an action therefor by the judgment creditor; and the amount recovered shall be applied towards the payment of the execution. Either party may apply at any time for such modification of the execution as shall be deemed just.

After the institution of this suit this section of the Code was re-enacted as § 684 of the Civil Practice Act. Laws of 1920, c. 925.

The Encyclopedia Press, Inc., having duly recovered a judgment in the Supreme Court of New York against an employee of the Endicott Corporation receiving weekly wages of more than twelve dollars, was awarded, ex parte, under this section of the Code, an execution against his wages, directing the Corporation to pay over each week ten per centum thereof until the execution was satisfied. The Corporation failed and refused so to do, and continued to pay the employee his entire weekly wages as they became due.

The Encyclopedia Press thereupon brought suit in the Supreme Court against the Corporation, upon the execution, for the accumulated percentages of the weekly wages that it had not paid over. Judgment was recovered; which, upon successive appeals, was affirmed, without opinions, by the Appellate Division and the Court of Appeals. 200 A.D. 847; 234 N.Y. 627. The record was remitted to the Supreme Court, to which this writ of error was directed.

See the opinions of the Supreme Court and Appellate Division in an earlier case involving similar questions. 189 N.Y.S. 673; 199 A.D. 194.

The Corporation contends that § 1391 of the Code is in conflict with the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, in that it authorizes the issuance of a garnishment execution without notice to the judgment debtor or affording him a hearing, and, further, in that it interferes with the liberty of contract between the judgment debtor and the garnishee.

1. We assume for present purposes that a garnishee sued upon the execution has, by reason of the nature of the cause of action and the liability which this section imposes upon him, the right to challenge its constitutionality on the ground that it is wanting in due process as against the judgment debtor. See High v. Bank of Commerce, 95 Cal. 386.

The words "due process of law," when applied to judicial proceedings, "mean a course of legal proceedings according to those rules and principles which have been established in our systems of jurisprudence for the protection and enforcement of private rights." Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U.S. 714, 733; Scott v. McNeal, 154 U.S. 34, 46. They require a proceeding which, observing the general rules thus established, follows forms of law appropriate to the case and just to the parties to be affected; and which, whenever it is necessary for the protection of the parties, gives them an opportunity to be heard respecting the justice of the judgment sought. Hagar v. Reclamation District, 111 U.S. 701, 708. However, the established rules of our system of jurisprudence do not require that a defendant who has been granted an opportunity to be heard and has had his day in court, should, after a judgment has been rendered against him, have a further notice and hearing before supplemental proceedings are taken to reach his property in satisfaction of the judgment. Thus, in the absence of a statutory requirement, it is not essential that he be given notice before the issuance of an execution against his tangible property; after the rendition of the judgment he must take "notice of what will follow," no further notice being "necessary to advance justice." Ayres v. Campbell, 9 Iowa 213, 216; Reid v. Railway Co., 32 Pa. 257, 258; Foster v. Young, 172 Cal. 317, 322; McAnaw v. Matthis, 129 Mo. 142, 152.

There is no more reason why the judgment debtor should be entitled to notice before the issue of an execution provided by statute as supplemental process to impound, in satisfaction of the judgment, choses in action due to him which cannot be reached by an ordinary execution. No established rule of our system of jurisprudence requires that such notice be given. On the contrary, it has been frequently held in the state courts that, in the absence of a statutory requirement, it is not essential that the judgment debtor be given notice and an opportunity to be heard before the issuance of such garnishment. High v. Bank of Commerce, supra, p. 387; Coffee v. Haynes, 124 Cal. 561, 565; Ketcham v. Kent, 115 Mich. 60, 63; Hexter v. Clifford, 5 Colo. 168, 173; Kesler v. St. John, 22 Iowa 565, 566; Phillips v. Germon, 43 Iowa 101, 102; Smith v. Dickson, 58 Iowa 444, 445; Pistchal v. Durant, 168 A.D. 100, 102. And see Daigle v. Bird, 22 La. Ann. 138, 139; Chanute v. Martin, 25 Ill. 63, 65; Cross v. Brown, 19 R.I. 220; Winner v. Hoyt, 68 Wis. 278, 286. In High v. Bank of Commerce, supra, in which the constitutionality of a garnishment statute was challenged because it did not require notice to the judgment debtor before issuance of the writ, the court said: "So far as the judgment debtor is concerned, he cannot complain; he is a party to the judgment, and is fully aware of the legal effect of it, viz., that what his debtors owe him can be applied, by proper proceedings in the action which is still pending, to the satisfaction of his judgment debts; and due process of law has been had to make him aware of that fact. If, then, anything is due from his debtor, he is not injured if it is so applied. If nothing is due him from such debtor, then the matter is of no concern to him. . . . We therefore see no force in the suggestion that the statute is unconstitutional, in that the judgment debtor has under it no notice of the supplementary proceeding after judgment affecting his rights of property." And in Ketcham v. Kent, supra, the court aptly said that if notice were given the judgment debtor before issuing the garnishment, "the very advantage sought by the writ would possibly be of no avail, as a disposition could be made of the fund or property before service could be had."

We conclude that the provision of § 1391 of the Code authorizing the issue of a garnishment execution on the ex parte application of the judgment creditor, is not in conflict with the due process clause.

2. Nor does this section deprive the judgment debtor and garnishee of property without due process of law by interference with their liberty of contract. The statute in no wise prevents them from making such contract as they choose, but merely subjects the proceeds of the contract that become due the judgment debtor to the payment of the judgment rendered against him. This is not an interference with the right of contract within the meaning of the due process clause. Compare Philbrick v. Philbrick, 39 N.H. 468, 474, and Laird v. Carton, 196 N.Y. 169, 172. The suggestion that a substantial constitutional right of the garnishee is impaired because he may be put to some additional expense of bookkeeping in keeping his account with the judgment debtor, is plainly without merit.

3. It is further contended that this section of the Code is void because contrary to public policy. This, however, does not present a federal question.

Affirmed.


Summaries of

Endicott Co. v. Encyclopedia Press

U.S.
Nov 17, 1924
266 U.S. 285 (1924)

In Endicott-Johnson, the Supreme Court considered a claim by a judgment debtor that he was entitled to additional predeprivation procedures prior to the garnishment of his wages.

Summary of this case from Revis v. Meldrum

In Endicott-Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285, 45 S.Ct. 61, 69 L.Ed. 288 (1924), the Court upheld a state law that allowed a creditor with a valid state court judgment to garnish the debtor's wages without additional notice.

Summary of this case from Adkins v. Rumsfeld

In Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285, 45 S.Ct. 61, 69 L.Ed. 288 (1924), the Supreme Court held that "the established rules of our system of jurisprudence" do not entitle a judgment debtor to "further notice and hearing before supplemental proceedings are taken to reach his property in satisfaction of the judgment."

Summary of this case from Duranceau v. Wallace

In Endicott-Johnson the Supreme Court rejected the contention that due process requires notice and an opportunity for a hearing before a creditor obtains a writ of garnishment issued after judgment to reach the wages of the judgment debtor.

Summary of this case from Brown v. Liberty Loan Corp. of Duval

affording greater constitutional protections to pre-judgment alleged deprivations than those that occur during or after a claimant has had their day in court

Summary of this case from Magnolia Island Plantation, LLC v. Lucky Family, LLC

In Endicott-Johnson Corp v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285 (1924), the Supreme Court held that a judgment debtor is not constitutionally entitled to notice and a hearing prior to a garnishment, because the underlying judgment served as sufficient "notice of what will follow."

Summary of this case from Mayers v. New York Community Bancorp, Inc.

In Endicott, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the New York wage garnishment procedure against a challenge that the procedure violated due process by authorizing the issuance of a garnishment execution without notice to the judgment debtor and without affording him a hearing.

Summary of this case from Kirby v. Sprouls

In Endicott-Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285, 45 S.Ct. 61, 69 L.Ed. 288 (1924), the United States Supreme Court held that with regard to post-judgment garnishment proceedings, there were no due process requirements that a judgment debtor receive pre-seizure notice and opportunity to be heard.

Summary of this case from Fry's Food Stores of Arizona, Inc. v. CBM of Arizona, Inc.

In Endicott-Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285, 45 S.Ct. 61, 69 L.Ed. 288 (1924), the Supreme Court held that there was no requirement of notice and an opportunity to be heard on matters concerning post-judgment garnishment.

Summary of this case from Neeley v. Century Finance Co. of Arizona

In Endicott-Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285, 45 S.Ct. 61, 69 L.Ed. 288 (1924), the Court held that due process does not require post-judgment garnishment procedures to provide a debtor with notice of hearing before garnishment.

Summary of this case from Jahn v. Regan

In Endicott Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285, 45 S.Ct. 61, 69 L.Ed. 288 (1924), the Court held that notice and a hearing are not required under the due process clause in post-judgment proceedings.

Summary of this case from Harris v. Bailey

In Endicott-Johnson the Court held that the due process clause did not require notice before the garnishment of wages for the satisfaction of a judgment, observing that the notice for the proceeding leading up to the judgment gave the judgment debtor advance warning of later proceedings to enforce the judgment.

Summary of this case from Deary v. Guardian Loan Co., Inc.

In Endicott Johnson, the Supreme Court held that a New York statute which allowed the garnishment of 10% of a judgment debtor's wages was constitutional, even though there was no notice to the judgment debtor before the garnishment became effective.

Summary of this case from Betts v. Tom

In Endicott-Johnson, the Court held that a judgment debtor need not be furnished with notice and hearing in post-judgment garnishment because the judgment serves as constructive notice.

Summary of this case from First National Bank v. Hasty

In Endicott Johnson, at 288-290, 45 S.Ct. 61, it was held that the opportunity of a defendant to appear and to contest the entry of a judgment which adjudicated his civil obligation to pay money was sufficient to render unnecessary further notice or hearing before the judgment creditor might resort to a form of execution by which property of the debtor would be summarily applied in satisfaction of the judgment.

Summary of this case from Vail v. Quinlan

In Endicott-Johnson Corporation v. Encyclopedia Press, Inc., 266 U.S. 285, 45 S.Ct. 61, 69 L.Ed. 288 (1924), the Supreme Court held that a judgment debtor is not required, under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, to notice before the issuance of execution to reach wages in the hands of his employer.

Summary of this case from Brown v. Liberty Loan Corporation of Duval

In Endicott-Johnson, the judgment debtor contended that a New York statute was in conflict with the constitutional due process clause because it authorized the issuance of a garnishment execution without giving notice to the judgment debtor or affording him a hearing.

Summary of this case from Sivley v. Sivley

In Endicott-Johnson Corp., the United States Supreme Court held that due process did not entitle a judgment debtor to actual notice and an opportunity to be heard before collection of the judgment was undertaken through post-judgment garnishment process.

Summary of this case from Byers v. Wik

In Endicott-Johnson Corp. v. Encyclopedia Press, supra, the Supreme Court of the United States addressed itself to the question in these terms: "However, the established rules of our system of jurisprudence do not require that a defendant who has been granted an opportunity to be heard and has had his day in court, should, after a judgment has been rendered against him, have a further notice and hearing before supplemental proceedings are taken to reach his property in satisfaction of the judgment.

Summary of this case from Agnew v. Cronin

In Endicott Co. v. Encyclopedia Press, 266 U.S. 285, 288 (1924), a garnishee claimed that a garnishment deprived a judgment debtor of due process of law because he had neither notice nor an opportunity to be heard before the execution issued.

Summary of this case from Pace Motor Lines, Inc. v. Biagiarelli
Case details for

Endicott Co. v. Encyclopedia Press

Case Details

Full title:ENDICOTT JOHNSON CORPORATION v . ENCYCLOPEDIA PRESS, INC

Court:U.S.

Date published: Nov 17, 1924

Citations

266 U.S. 285 (1924)
45 S. Ct. 61

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