Garnishment in Texas

If you didn't receive a summons and the plaintiff received a default judgment in another state, you can motion the court to have the judgment vacated due to lack of service.

We need more info to properly answer this one for you.

1--when was the lawsuit filed?

2--I'm assuming that the lawsuit took place in CA, not TX. if that is the case, did you live in CA when the lawsuit was filed? In other words, did you live in the state that the case went to court in, when the case was filed against you?

3--Did you ever receive a summons? If so, did you answer it?

4--Did the plaintiff get a default judgment against you? If you did not know about the summons, or if you knew about it but did not show up, then they got a default judgment. If you did not have your day in court because you never knew you were being sued, it changes the answers I would give you now.

5--How long ago were you notified about the garnishment?

6--this is a big one--what are they garnishing? In Texas your wages simply cannot be garnished for a debt, unless the debt is a government related debt such as taxes, federal student loans, etc etc, or child support. You were evicted, and your landlord is after the money...last time I checked that was considered a consumer debt.

If this was a federal court in Ca., then the judgment can be enforced anywhere in the country. But if this was a Ca state court judgment, then before they can touch anything you have in Texas, they need to domesticate the Ca judgment at a TX state court, which requires them to serve you.

I highly doubt that a debt collector would try to sue someone over a consumer debt in federal district court....for one thing, a consumer debt is not a federal matter, so it would be done in a state or county court. Second, the OP has said that there was no notice at all of a court case until the garnishment was put in place. No matter where the CA sued this person, they were required to serve a summons. They didnt do so. At this point, no matter where the lawsuit happened, if it even did at all, it was illegally done. I am very curious about this one because Texas does not allow wage garnishments on consumer debts, period. No exceptions. Waiting for the OP to come back and tell us more details....

Flying is right, please ignore "Options" post above as its almost useless.

Flying I suspect we are going to find out that the OP meant that he is being "garnished" in the sense that people use it when a court takes what is in their bank account for a Judgment, not the more correct and common "garnishment" as in garnishing wages from an employer.

If I'm wrong then yes I am as bewildered as you and want more info. Texas categorically prohibits wage garnishment for these types of debts (civil judgment as in the OP being evicted).

Also even domesticated judgments only typically are due the remedy of the state to which they are domesticated (in this case Texas). So even if you had a very old judgment from California and they domesticated it to Texas in most states (I dont know about Texas) the "full faith and credit" clause thats allowing them to domesticate doesnt mean that they have to follow the laws of the original state the judgment was created in.

So to OP: Dig around, find out the details of the judgment, get a copy. read up on TX law concerning Judgment execution and see what they are allowed to do. You will probably find as Flying/Dr Tax says that they are not allowed to do wage garnishment. Fight it that way.

If you mean as I suspect bank account garnishment then you are pretty much out of luck there as all states besides I think DE allow bank acct seizure for civil judgments.

Please let us know in any case. Im dying to hear more.

I'm assuming "Flying" = "Skydivr"?