RESTRICTING GARNISHEE.
On motion by Mr. VOYLES, his bill, [S 273--see page 163 of these Reports--wages not to be garnished by evasion of State law, etc.] was read the second time, with a favorable Committee report thereon.
Mr. MENZIES--The purpose of the bill is to make valid and of more force the exemption laws of this State.
Mr. CHAPMAN--This is an attempt to make our laws extend by indirection in another State as he understood by the reading. It is making a penal statute for the benefit of the defendant in an action in a foreign tribunal.
Mr. MENZIES--There being no constitutional objection, this bill should be passed to remedy an evil practiced against railroad employes.
Mr. CHAPMAN knew of no complaint on the part of railroad employes. This bill proposes to make penal an act which is a lawful act done under another sovereignty. Such a thing has not been known in legislation until a recent time. It is a violation of the fundamental forms of Government, and of the rights of governmental ethics.
Mr. BROWN--If a man leaves the State with the intention of doing an illegal act, he is still triable in this State for it; so there is no principal of criminal jurisprudence in this bill, so this objection is entirely void. The act of 1879 is authority in support of this measure. This bill ought to be passed.
Mr. VOYLES did not think the bill was understood by the Senator from Marion [Mr. Chapman.] It simply provides that the creditor shall pursue his remedy n this State--it proposes to protect a householder who goes temporarily out of the State in his right to our exemption law. The bill is surely in the right direction.
Mr. LANGDON favored the bill, thinking it a proper supplement to the exemption law and the exemption act of 1879. It has been the policy of the State to provide that some of the debtor's goods that shall be exempt from execution, which amount in 1879 was raise from $300 to $600. An evil has grown up, by having wages of our citizens garnished in another State--the citizen is robbed of a right he has in the Courts of Indiana. No crimes are attempted to be created by this bill.
