Iowa Code » Chapter 639 — ATTACHMENT
Iowa Code

Iowa Code § 639.38 (2026)

Lien acquired — action to determine interest

✓ current as of July 2026
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The plaintiff shall, from the time such property is taken possession of by the officer, have a lien on the interest of the defendant therein, and may, either before or after the plaintiff obtains judgment in the action in which the attachment issued, commence action by equitable proceedings to ascertain the nature and extent of such interest and to enforce the lien. [C73, §2974; C97, §3904; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §12114; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §639.38]

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Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases, 1954–2000 · leading case: Wilson v. Kelso, 92 N.W.2d 392 (Iowa 1958).
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Wilson v. Kelso, 92 N.W.2d 392 (Iowa 1958). · cites it 4× “37 for the levy of an attachment on property owned jointly, in common or in partnership with another.”
Conklin v. Iowa Dist. Court for Scott Cnty., 482 N.W.2d 444 (Iowa 1992). · cites it 2× “Iowa Code § 639.38 (1989). Applying these two statutes to this case, we conclude that under Iowa law House acquired a lien against the funds at the time the sheriff took possession of Conklin’s wages in March 1989, approximately eight months prior to the filing of Conklin’s…”
Shodeen v. Davenport Cement Co. (In Re Aztec Concrete, Inc.), 143 B.R. 537 (Bankr. S.D. Iowa 1992). · cites it 2× “Iowa Code § 639.38 (1989). Applying this statutory law, the Iowa Supreme Court in Conklin concluded that under Iowa law, a garnishing creditor acquires a lien against funds held by the garnishee when the sheriff takes possession of the funds.”
Dioptron Co. v. Dimmitt, 62 N.W.2d 749 (Iowa 1954). · cites it 2× “Plaintiff’s attachment lien on the real property justified the bringing of and supports the equitable action brought by it, a creditor, to establish a lien on land claimed to have been fraudulently conveyed.”
Roberts v. Horstmann (In re Horstmann), 255 B.R. 564 (Bankr. S.D. Iowa 2000). · cites it 6× “Iowa Code § 639.38 . That is, a lien created by this section is a “lien obtained by .”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.