Green v. Watson

• Decision Date: 31 October 1885
• Parties: Green. vs. Watson.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

75 Ga. 471

Green. vs. Watson.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

OCTOBER TERM, 1885.

Garnishment. Laborers. Waiver. Wages. Before Judge Harris. Douglas Superior Court. July Term, 1885.

Watson brought complaint against Green in the county court of Douglas county on a promissory note containing the waiver set out in the decision, and recovered judgment. Pending the suit, process of garnishment was sued out and served on the Georgia Pacific Railway Company. The garnishee answered that it owed the defendant $ 1350 for wages as a day laborer, and paid the amount into court. The defendant moved to dismiss the garnishment on the ground that his wages were exempt from garnishment. The county judge held that, under the waiver, the wageswere subject. On certiorari, this judgment was affirmed, and the defendant excepted, and assigned error because such a waiver was contrary to public policy and was not binding, and because it appeared that there was no indebtedness by the garnishee to the defendant when the note was made.

John V. Edge; B. G. Griggs; R. M. Holley, for plaintiff in error, cited Code, §§3554, 2002, 2040; 38 Ga., 533; 2 5 Id., 573-5; 25 Am. B., 301; 19 Id., 61; 2 C. L. J., 114, 259; 59 Ga., '837; Code, §§10, 2750; 54 Ga., 108; 20 Iowa, 376.

Thos. W. Latham; C. D. Camp, for defendant, cited Code, §§10, 2039(a), 1954, 1950, 1945, 2750; 71 Ga., 748; 70 Id., 741; 25 Iowa, 315; Drake Attach., §516(b).

Jackson, Chief Justice.

The question made in this record is, whether a waiver of the right to have a laborer's wages exempt from garnishment is binding upon him, when the waiver is general and extends indefinitely to all his future wages. The waiver is in the following words:

" And I hereby contract and expressly waive the exemption of my wages or salary from the process of garnishment under the laws of Georgia, or to the exemption of my daily, weekly, monthly or yearly wages or salary from the operation of the garnishment law, in case this note is not paid promptly at maturity."

This waiver, it is thus seen, extends ad infinitum to all that the laborer may make by any employment in any sort of labor from any employer, and payable daily or weekly or monthly or yearly, and it is as general and sweeping as it is possible to make it. In Stafford, Blalock & Co. vs. Elliott, 59 Ga., 837, prior to the adoption of the present constitution, this court held that this could not be done even in the case of a waiver to take exemption and homestead to secure a promissory note, where the waiver was general and extended to all the property of the debtor.

In the case at bar, it extends to all the money he can ever make by his labor; and as this class of laborers generally have no property but their earnings, it extends to all his property that he can possibly acquire.-The principle ruled in Stafford, Blalock & Co. vs. Elliott is, that a general waiver, to secure a promissory note, of the right to take homestead and exemption, embracing all the property of the debtor in esse and to be...