Code of the District of Columbia

Chapter 23. Assignment of Choses in Action.

§ 28–2301. Assignment of judgment or money decree.

A judgment or money decree may be assigned in writing, and upon the assignment thereof being filed in the clerk’s office the assignee may maintain an action or sue out an execution on the judgment in his own name, as the original plaintiff might have done.

§ 28–2302. Assignment of bond or obligation.

An obligee named in a bond or obligation under seal for the payment of money may assign it in writing and the assignee may maintain an action thereon in his own name.

§ 28–2303. Assignment of nonnegotiable contract.

An owner of a nonnegotiable written agreement for the payment of money, including a nonnegotiable bill of exchange and a promissory note, or for the delivery of personal property, an open account, debt, and demand of a liquidated character, except a claim against the United States or the salary of a public officer, may assign it in writing, and the assignee may maintain an action thereon in his own name.

§ 28–2304. General assignments including choses in action.

In a general assignment which includes choses in action, it is not necessary to execute a separate assignment of each chose in action, but the assignee, by virtue of the general assignment, may sue in his own name on the several choses in action included therein.

§ 28–2305. Contract to assign future salary or wages.

(a) A contract attempting or purporting to transfer or assign salary or wages to be earned by the debtor, if made in the District of Columbia, is invalid and contrary to public policy and unenforceable, and if made outside the District of Columbia, is unenforceable in any court within the District of Columbia.

(b) Whoever, in the District of Columbia demands or receives from a debtor an assignment of salary or wages to be thereafter earned by the debtor, or notifies an employer that he holds an assignment of such salary or wages, upon conviction shall be fined not more than the amount set forth in [§ 22-3571.01] or imprisoned not more than sixty days. Prosecutions under this subsection shall be upon information filed in the Criminal Division of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by the Corporation Counsel of the District of Columbia or one of his assistants.