North Carolina General Statutes 1-440.1. Nature of attachment
Terms Used In North Carolina General Statutes 1-440.1
- Attachment: A procedure by which a person's property is seized to pay judgments levied by the court.
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
- property: shall include all property, both real and personal. See North Carolina General Statutes 12-3
(a) Attachment is a proceeding ancillary to a pending principal action, is in the nature of a preliminary execution against property, and is intended to bring property of a defendant within the legal custody of the court in order that it may subsequently be applied to the satisfaction of any judgment for money which may be rendered against the defendant in the principal action.
(b) No personal judgment, even for costs, may be rendered against a defendant unless personal jurisdiction has been acquired as provided in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-75.3
(c) Although there is no personal service on the defendant, or on an agent for him, and although he does not make a general appearance, judgment may be rendered in an action in which property of the defendant has been attached which judgment shall provide for the application of the attached property, by the method set out in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 1-440.46, to the satisfaction of the plaintiff‘s claim as established in the principal action. If plaintiff’s claim is not thereby satisfied in full, subsequent actions for the unsatisfied balance are not barred. (1947, c. 693, s. 1; 1967, c. 954, s. 3.)