Virginia Code 16.1-121: Order after hearing.
After hearing the parties or such of them as may attend after being summoned, and such witnesses as may be introduced by either party, the judge shall order the officer, or the possessor of any money or other personal estate, to deliver the same to the claimant, if he be of opinion that the same belongs to the claimant; but if he be of opinion that the property, money or other personal estate, or any part thereof, belongs to the person against whom the execution or warrant of distress issued, he shall order the officer who levied on the same to sell the property so liable, to satisfy the execution or warrant of distress; or when there is money or other personal estate in the possession of a bailee or garnishee, he shall order the bailee or garnishee, as the case may be, to make delivery to the execution creditor of all such money or other personal estate so found to belong to the execution debtor, or so much thereof as may be necessary to satisfy the execution; and he may give such judgment respecting the property, the expense of keeping it, any injury done by it, and for the costs, as may be just and equitable among the parties.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 16.1-121
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Personal estate: includes chattels real and such other estate as, upon the death of the owner intestate, would devolve upon his personal representative. See Virginia Code 1-233
1956, c. 555.