An opinion of the Attorney General was published on the issue of whether a garnishee (defendant) qualifies as a “defendant” for the purposes of Indiana Code sections 33-37-4-6 and 33-37-5-28 which impose a $10 additional filing fee for each additional defendant. In the opinion of the Attorney General, it was not the intent of the General Assembly to impose an extra $10 fee each time a judgment creditor added a garnishee defendant to the case in an effort to try to collect on the judgment.
Given the garnishee’s neutral role as a third party in proceedings supplemental to the original cause of action between the plaintiff and the defendant, and based on the statutory references to the garnishee as a “person” or “garnishee defendant” under chapter 34-25-3 and in the Indiana Trial Rules, it is the opinion of this office that the legislature did not intend for clerks to collect a ten-dollar service fee from the plaintiff for each named garnishee defendant under Indiana Code section 33-37-4-6 or 33-37-5-28.
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