Chapter 578 Oregon Laws 2003

AN ACT

HB 3177

Relating to state agency debt collection; creating new provisions; and amending ORS 18.900.

Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon:

SECTION 1. Section 2 of this 2003 Act is added to and made a part of ORS chapter 705.

SECTION 2. (1) If any amount due the Department of Consumer and Business Services is not paid within 30 days of the date payment becomes due, and no provision has been made to secure the payment, the department may issue a warrant. The warrant may be filed with the county clerk of any county in this state and recorded in the County Clerk Lien Record of the county in which it is filed. The amount of a warrant issued under this section shall include the principal amount of the debt, any added interest accumulated pursuant to ORS 82.010 or other applicable law and any costs associated with the recording, indexing and serving of the warrant and any satisfaction or release thereof. A copy of the warrant shall be mailed to the debtor by the department at the last known address of the debtor.

(2) After receiving the warrant, the county clerk shall enter the warrant in the County Clerk Lien Record in the manner described in ORS 205.125. The warrant shall have the effect described in this section and ORS 205.125 and 205.126 and may be enforced as provided in this section and ORS 18.900, 205.125 and 205.126.

SECTION 3. ORS 18.900 is amended to read:

18.900. (1) Any state agency authorized to issue warrants to collect taxes and debts owed to the State of Oregon, including but not limited to warrants issued pursuant to ORS 179.655, 267.385, 293.250, 314.430, 316.207, 320.080, 321.570, 323.390, 657.642 and 825.504 and section 2 of this 2003 Act, or any county tax collector authorized to issue warrants to collect taxes and debts owed to the county pursuant to ORS 311.625, may garnish property of a debtor in the possession, control or custody of a person other than the debtor by delivering to the person all of the following:

(a) A notice of garnishment;

(b) A warrant, or a true copy of a warrant;

(d) Any garnishee’s search fee payable as provided in ORS 18.790.

(2) A notice of garnishment may be issued by any person designated by the state agency or by the county tax collector. A warrant need not be recorded in the County Clerk Lien Record as a condition of issuing a notice of garnishment under the provisions of this section. The provisions of ORS 18.800 do not apply to a notice of garnishment.

(3) If any of the items described in subsection (1) of this section are not delivered to the garnishee, a notice of garnishment shall not be effective to garnish any property of the debtor, and the garnishee shall not be required to respond to the garnishment and may proceed to deal with any property of the debtor as though the notice of garnishment had not been issued.

(4) Notwithstanding ORS 18.652, a notice of garnishment and the other items required by subsection (1) of this section may be delivered in person by any employee of the state agency or of the county tax collector authorized by the agency or the county to deliver the notice of garnishment, or by certified mail, return receipt requested. The employee need not be covered by the errors and omissions insurance required in ORS 18.652.

(5) Notwithstanding any provision of ORS 18.600 to 18.850, a debt calculation form need not be prepared or delivered for any notice of garnishment.

(6) Notwithstanding ORS 18.792, the duty of a garnishee to deliver any property of the debtor that may be contained in a safe deposit box that is in the garnishee’s possession, control or custody at the time of delivery of the notice of garnishment to the garnishee is conditioned upon the state agency or the county tax collector first paying to the garnishee, in addition to the search fee provided for in ORS 18.790, all reasonable costs incurred by the garnishee in gaining entry to the safe deposit box. The costs shall be paid to the garnishee by the state agency or the county tax collector at least five days before the date the state agency or the county tax collector takes possession of the property in the safe deposit box. If the state agency or the county tax collector fails to pay such costs to the garnishee within 20 days after the delivery of the garnishee response, the garnishment shall not be effective to garnish any property of the debtor that may be contained in the safe deposit box and the garnishee may proceed to deal with the safe deposit box and its contents as though the notice of garnishment had not been issued. Nothing in this subsection limits the rights of a state agency or county tax collector to reach the contents of any safe deposit box in any manner otherwise provided by law.

(7) Except as provided in this section and ORS 18.902 and 18.905, all provisions of ORS 18.600 to 18.850 apply to notices of garnishment. The state agency or county tax collector shall modify the forms provided in ORS 18.600 to 18.850 as necessary to allow use of those forms for notices of garnishment. The form of the notice of garnishment must clearly indicate that the document is a notice of garnishment and must reflect the date of all warrants on which the notice of garnishment is based.

(8) The Attorney General may adopt model forms for notices of garnishment issued by state agencies and county tax collectors. There is a presumption, as described in ORS 40.120, that any state agency or county tax collector that uses a model form adopted by the Attorney General under this subsection has complied with the requirements of ORS 18.600 to 18.850, and with the provisions of this section and ORS 18.902 and 18.905, with respect to the form of notices of garnishment.

SECTION 4. Section 2 of this 2003 Act and the amendments to ORS 18.900 by section 3 of this 2003 Act apply to debts owed to the Department of Consumer and Business Services arising before, on or after the effective date of this 2003 Act.

Approved by the Governor July 17, 2003

Filed in the office of Secretary of State July 18, 2003

Effective date January 1, 2004

__________