Opinion
File No. 146110
In the absence of statute, the state cannot be made a garnishee, nor can an officer of the state acting in his official capacity.
Memorandum filed November 9, 1966
Memorandum on plea in abatement. Plea sustained.
Day, Berry Howard, of Hartford, for the plaintiff.
Groobert Mahon, of Manchester, for all defendants.
Harold M. Mulvey, attorney general, and John K. Jepson, assistant attorney general, for the state, garnishee.
Courtney, Mansfield, Sullivan Ripley, of Hartford, for the defendant Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co.
The state of Connecticut filed a plea in abatement for the reason that the process is against the sovereign state of Connecticut or persons acting in their official capacity as officers of the state of Connecticut.
Stephenson, Connecticut Civil Procedure § 36(d), (e) and (f), pages 78 and 79, states that the rule in the United States is that the state cannot be made a garnishee. While no statute exists in Connecticut, it would be safe to assume that the rule obtains here in the absence of statutes authorizing procedures to allow the state to be garnishee.