_Attachment._--A judgment creditor may "attach" debts due by third
parties to his debtor by what are known as garnishee proceedings.
Stock and shares belonging to a judgment debtor may be charged by a
charging order, so as, in the first instance, to prevent transfer of
the stock or payment of the dividends, and ultimately to enable the
judgment creditor to realise his charge. A writ of attachment of the
person of a defaulting debtor or party may be obtained in a variety of
cases akin to contempt (e.g. against a person failing to comply with
an order to answer interrogatories, or against a solicitor not
entering an appearance in an action, in breach of his written
undertaking to do so), and in the cases where imprisonment for debt is
still preserved by the Debtors Act 1869 (R.S.C., O. xliv.). CONTEMPT
OF COURT (q.v.) in its ordinary forms is also punishable by summary
committal.
_County Courts._--In the county courts the chief modes of execution
are "warrant of execution in the nature of a writ of _fieri facias_";
garnishee proceedings; equitable execution; warrants of possession and
delivery, corresponding to the writs of possession and delivery above
mentioned; committal, where a judgment debtor has, or, since the date
of the judgment has had, means to pay his debt; and attachment of the
person for contempt of court. If the judgment debtor assaults the
bailiff or his officer or rescues the goods, he is liable to a fine
not exceeding L5.
SCOTLAND.--The principal modes of execution or "diligence" in Scots
law are (i.) Arrestment and furthcoming, which corresponds to the
English garnishee proceedings; (ii.) arrestment _jurisdictionis
fundandae causa_, i.e. the seizure of movables within the jurisdiction
to found jurisdiction against their owner, being a foreigner; this
precedure, which is not, however, strictly a "diligence," as it does
not bind the goods, is analogous to the French _saisie-arret_, and to
the obsolete practice in the mayor's court of London known as "foreign
attachment" (see Glyn and Jackson, _Mayor's Court Practice_, 2nd ed.,
vii. 260); (iii.) arrestment under _meditatione fugae_ warrant,
corresponding to the old English writ of _ne exeat regno_, and
applicable in the case of a debtor who intends to leave Scotland to
evade an action; (iv.) arrestment on dependence, i.e. of funds in
security; (v.) poinding, i.e. valuation and sale of the debtor's
goods; (vi.) sequestration, e.g. of tenant's effects under a
landlord's hypothec for rent; (vii.) action of adjudication, by which
a debtor's "heritable" (i.e. real) estate is transferred to his
judgment creditor in satisfaction of his debt or security therefor. In
Scots law "multiplepoinding" is the equivalent of "interpleader."
IRELAND.--The law of execution in Ireland (see R.S.C., 1905, Orders
xli.-xlviii.) is practically the same as in England.
BRITISH POSSESSIONS.--The Judicature Acts of most of the Colonies
have also adopted English Law. Parts of the French _Code de procedure
civile_ are still in force in Mauritius. But its provisions have been
modified by local enactment (No. 19 of 1868) as regards realty, and
the rules of the Supreme Court 1903 have introduced the English forms
of writs. Quebec and St Lucia, where French law formerly prevailed,
have now their own codes of Civil Procedure. The law of execution
under the Quebec Code resembles the French, that under the St Lucia
Code the English system. In British Guiana and Ceylon, in which Roman
Dutch law in one form or another prevailed, the English law of
execution has now in substance been adopted (British Guiana Rules of
Court, 1900, Order xxxvi.)., Ceylon (Code of Civil Procedure, No. 2 of
1889); the modes of execution in the South African Colonies are also
the subject of local enactment, largely influenced by English law (cf.
the Sheriffs' Ordinance, 1902, No. 9 of 1902), (Orange River Colony)
and (Proclamation 17 of 1902), Transvaal (Nathan, _Common Law of South
Africa_, vol. iv. p. 2206); and generally, Van Zyl, _Judicial Practice
of South Africa_, pp. 198 et seq.
UNITED STATES.--Execution in the United States is founded upon English
law, which it closely resembles. Substantially the same forms of
execution are in force. The provisions of the Statute of Frauds making
the lien of execution attach only on delivery to the sheriff were
generally adopted in America, and are still law in many of the states.
The law as to the rights and duties of sheriffs is substantially the
same as in England. The "homestead laws" (q.v.) which are in force in
nearly all the American States exempt a certain amount or value of
real estate occupied by a debtor as his homestead from a forced sale
for the payment of his debts. This homestead legislation has been
copied in some British colonies, e.g. Western Australia (No. 37 of
1898, Pt. viii.), Quebec (Rev. Stats., ss. 1743-1748), Manitoba (Rev.
Stats., 1902, c. 58, s. 29, c. 21, s. 9), Ontario (Rev. Stats., 1897,
c. 29), British Columbia (Rev. Stats., 1897, c. 93), New South Wales
(Crown Lands Act 1895, Pt. iii.), New Zealand (Family Homes Protection