Title 16 — Particular Actions, Proceedings and Matters. [Enacted title]

An action of account shall and may be brought against the executor and administrator of every guardian, bailiff and receiver; and by one joint-tenant and tenant in common, his executors and administrators, against the other, as bailiff for receiving more than comes to his just sh…

(a) Subject to subsection (b) of this section, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia has jurisdiction to hear and determine petitions and decrees of adoption of any adult or child with authority to make such rules, not inconsistent with this chapter, as shall bring fully…

Any person may petition the court for a decree of adoption. A petition may not be considered by the court unless petitioner’s spouse, if he has one, joins in the petition, except that if either the husband or wife is a natural parent of the prospective adoptee, the natural parent…

A person, whether a minor or an adult, may be adopted.

(a) A petition for adoption may not be granted by the court unless there is filed with the petition a written statement of consent, as provided by this section, signed and acknowledged before an officer authorized by law to take acknowledgments, before a representative of a licen…

A petition filed for the adoption of a person shall be under oath or affirmation of the petitioner and the titling thereof shall be substantially as follows: “Ex parte in the matter of the petition of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . for adoption.” The petition or the exhi…

(a) Except as provided by subsection (b) of this section, due notice of pending adoption proceedings shall be given to each person whose consent is necessary thereto, immediately upon the filing of a petition. The notice shall be given by summons, by registered letter sent to the…

(a) Except as provided by section 16-308, upon the filing of a petition the court shall refer the petition for investigation, report, and recommendation to: (1) the licensed child-placing agency by which the case is supervised; or (2) the Mayor, if the case is not supervised by a…

(a) The court may dispense with the investigation, report, and interlocutory decree provided for by this chapter when: (1) The prospective adoptee is an adult; or (2) The petitioner is a spouse or domestic partner of the natural parent of the prospective adoptee and the natural p…

(a) Within a period of ninety days, or such time as extended by the court, after a copy of the petition and the order providing for the report is served upon the agency directed to make the investigation, the agency shall make the report and recommendation required by section 16-…

An attempt to invalidate a final decree of adoption by reason of a jurisdictional or procedural defect may not be received by any court of the District, unless regularly filed with the court within one year following the date the final decree became effective.

From and after the filing of the petition, records and papers in adoption proceedings shall be sealed. They may not be inspected by any person, including the parties to the proceeding, except upon order of the court, and only then when the court is satisfied that the welfare of t…

(a) A final decree of adoption establishes the relationship of natural parent and natural child between adopter and adoptee for all purposes, including mutual rights of inheritance and succession as if adoptee were born to adopter. The adoptee takes from, through, and as a repres…

In the District, “child” or its equivalent in a deed, grant, will, or other written instrument includes an adopted person, unless the contrary plainly appears by the terms thereof, whether the instrument was executed before or after the entry of the interlocutory decree of adopti…

(a) Upon the issuance of a final decree of adoption, an adoption form shall be sent to the Registrar pursuant to the Vital Records Act of 1981. Unless otherwise requested in the petition by the adopters, the Registrar shall cause to be made a new record of the birth in the new na…

The provisions of this chapter have no effect prior to June 8, 1954, except to the extent that they specifically so provide. They do not affect in any way the rights and relations obtained by any decree of adoption entered prior to June 8, 1954.

(a) When a petition for adoption has been filed and there has been no termination or relinquishment of parental rights with respect to the proposed adoptee or consent to the proposed adoption by a parent or guardian whose consent is required under [section 16-304], the Court may …

(a)(1) A final judgment of adoption granted by a judicial, administrative, or executive body of a jurisdiction or country other than the United States shall have the same force and effect in the District as that given to a judgment of adoption entered by the Superior Court of the…

For the purposes of this chapter, the term: (1) “Artificial insemination” means the process by which a man’s fresh or frozen sperm sample is introduced into a woman’s vagina, other than by sexual intercourse, under the supervision of a physician. (2) “District” means the District…

(a) Surrogate parenting contracts are prohibited and rendered unenforceable in the District. (b) Any person or entity who or which is involved in, or induces, arranges, or otherwise assists in the formation of a surrogate parenting contract for a fee, compensation, or other remun…

(a) This section applies to any civil action in the United States District Court of the District of Columbia or the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, for the recovery of: (1) specific personal property; (2) a debt; or (3) damages for the breach of a contract, express or…

(a) A writ issued pursuant to section 16-501 shall require the marshal to serve a notice on the defendant, if he is found in the District, and on any person in whose possession any property or credits of the defendant may be attached, to appear in the court on or before the twent…

A creditor may maintain an action and have an attachment against his debtor’s property and credits, where his debt is not yet due and payable, if the plaintiff, his agent, or attorney files in the clerk’s office, at the commencement of the action, an affidavit, supported by testi…

Upon the application of the plaintiff, his agent, or attorney, other attachments founded on the original affidavits may be issued from time to time, to be directed, executed, and returned in the same manner as the original, and without further publication, against a nonresident o…

The defendant or any other person interested in the proceedings who is not satisfied with the sufficiency of the surety or with the amount of the penalty named in the bond filed pursuant to section 16-501 , may apply to the court for an order requiring the plaintiff to give an ad…

If the defendant files affidavits traversing the affidavits filed by the plaintiff the court shall determine whether the facts set forth in the plaintiff’s affidavits as ground for issuing the attachment are true, and whether there was just ground for issuing the attachment. When…

(a) An attachment may be levied on the lands and tenements, and personal chattels of the defendant not exempt by law, whether in the defendant’s or a third person’s possession, and whether the defendant’s title to the property is legal or equitable, and upon his credits in the ha…

An attachment is sufficiently levied on the lands and tenements of the defendant by: (1) mentioning and describing the property in an indorsement on the attachment, made by the officer to whom it is delivered for service, to the following effect: “Levied on the following estate o…

(a) An attachment shall be levied upon personal chattels by the officer taking them into his possession and custody, unless the defendant gives the officer his undertaking to be filed in the cause, with sufficient security, substantially in the form set forth in subsection (b) of…

(a) Either the defendant or the person in whose possession the property is attached may obtain a release of the property from the attachment, after it has been taken into the custody of the marshal and the writ has been returned, by giving the undertaking required of him by secti…

(a) An attachment shall be levied upon credits of the defendant, in the hands of a garnishee, by serving the garnishee with a copy of the writ of attachment and of the interrogatories accompanying the writ, and a notice that any property or credits of the defendant in his hands a…

An attachment issued under section 16-501 solely on the ground that the defendant is not a resident of the District of Columbia and levied upon wages as defined in section 16-571 shall be subject to the provisions of subchapter III of this chapter; except that the employer-garnis…

It is unlawful for an employer to pay salary or earnings to an employee in advance of the time they are due and payable, for the purpose of avoiding or preventing an attachment or garnishment against the earnings or salary of the employee, and such an advance payment, as to the a…

When a writ of attachment is served on a garnishee, and the garnishee holds a credit or property for two or more persons, including the person whose credit or property is sought to be attached, or holds a credit or property for a person as agent or trustee or in any other represe…

(a) An attachment may be levied upon debts due to the defendant upon a judgment or decree by a service similar to that directed by section 16-511 upon the debtor owing the debts. Execution may issue for the enforcement of the judgment or decree, notwithstanding the attachment, bu…

An attachment may be levied upon money or property of the defendant in the hands of an executor or administrator, and binds the same from the time of service. If the executor or administrator makes return to the writ that he can not certainly answer whether the defendant’s share …

Where the action is to replevy specific personal property and it has not been replevied, other property may be attached in the action to recover damages and costs, and if a judgment is rendered for damages and costs, it shall carry the same rights as other judgments.

The court may make all orders necessary for the preservation of the property attached during the pendency of the action. When the property is perishable, or for other reasons a sale of it appears expedient, the court may order that the property be sold and its proceeds paid into …

A garnishee in an attachment proceeding may make any defense available to the defendant in the action in which the garnishment is issued.

A defendant, any garnishee, party to a forthcoming undertaking, or an officer who might be adjudged liable to the plaintiff by reason of the undertaking being adjudged insufficient, or a stranger to the action who may make claim to the property attached, may file an answer defend…

(a) In any case in which a writ of attachment is issued, the plaintiff may submit interrogatories in writing, in such form as may be allowed by the rules or special order of the court, to be served on any garnishee, asking about any property of the defendant in his possession or …

If any garnishee answers to interrogatories that he does not have property or credits of the defendant, or has less than the amount of the plaintiff’s claim, the plaintiff may traverse the answer as to the existence or amount of the property or credits, and the issue thereby made…

Any person may file his motion and affidavit in the cause, at any time before the final disposition of the property attached or its proceeds, except where it is real property, setting forth a claim thereto or an interest in or lien upon the same, acquired before the levy of the a…

(a) If the defendant in the action has been served with process, final judgment may not be rendered against the garnishee until the action against the defendant is determined. (b) If in such an action judgment is rendered for the defendant, the garnishee shall be discharged and s…

In any form of action, where specific property has been attached and remains under the control of the court, judgment of condemnation of the property shall be entered, and as much thereof as may be necessary to satisfy the demand of the plaintiff shall be sold under fieri facias.…

(a) When a garnishee has admitted credits in his hands, in answer to interrogatories served upon him, or the credits have been found upon an issue made as provided by this chapter, judgment shall be entered against him for the amount of credits admitted or found, not exceeding th…

(a) When property or credits attached are released upon an undertaking given as provided by sections 16-509 and 16-510, and judgment in the action is rendered in favor of the plaintiff, it is a joint judgment against both the defendant and all persons in the undertaking for the a…

A judgment of condemnation against a garnishee, and execution thereon, or payment by the garnishee in obedience to the judgment or an order of the court, is a sufficient defense to any action brought against him by the defendant in the action in which the attachment is issued, fo…

(a) Where the ground upon which an attachment is applied for is that the defendant has assigned, conveyed, or disposed of his property with intent to hinder, delay, or defraud his creditors, the attachment may be levied upon the property alleged to be so assigned or conveyed in t…

All issues raised by answers to the attachment, in any case, may be tried at the same time as the issues raised by the pleadings in the action, or separately, as may be just.