Judgment liens in Wyoming

What to file, and where

In the county of entry, a Wyoming judgment binds land from the day it is filed with the county clerk.

Lands and tenements in the county where a judgment is entered are bound for its satisfaction from the day the judgment is filed with the county clerk. That day is the one that counts, under Wyo. Stat. 1-17-302¹. And when a judgment is required to be filed with the county clerk, it is recorded in the real estate records, so the land record is where a searcher finds it. Same section again.

The circuit court judgment travels a slightly longer road. Its holder, if the judgment is not appealed or stayed, may file a transcript with the clerk of the district court and the county clerk of the county where it was rendered, certifying any amount already paid, under Wyo. Stat. 1-17-306(a)².

On that circuit court judgment, the lien starts the day the transcript reaches the county clerk, but only if the transcript also reached the clerk of district court earlier or the same day. See Wyo. Stat. 1-17-306(b). Both filings, with the county clerk's date controlling. File one and skip the other and there is no lien to date.

What it reaches

Land and goods are bound at two different moments, and the gap between them is the point.

Goods and chattels of the debtor are bound from the time they are seized in execution, not before, under Wyo. Stat. 1-17-302. Land is bound from the day of filing with the county clerk. So the recorded judgment sits on real estate from the filing date, while movable property is reached only when the sheriff takes it.

How long it lasts, and renewing it

A Wyoming judgment lien runs on a five-year execution clock, and letting it run out has a name.

Dormancy runs off executions, not off the filing date. A judgment of a Wyoming court of record, or one whose transcript has been filed under W.S. 1-17-306(a), becomes dormant and ceases to operate as a lien on the debtor's estate if no execution issues within five years from the date of the judgment, or if five years pass between the last execution and the next. See Wyo. Stat. 1-17-307³. That clock is a difference worth marking on a calendar.

Dormant is not dead. A judgment may be revived by the court's allowance of a motion for revival or by a conditional order that the action be revived, and this reaches a circuit court judgment whose transcript has been filed in district court for execution, under Wyo. Stat. 1-16-502⁴.

On revival, the lien for the amount due is revived with it and operates from the time of the entry of the conditional order or the filing of the motion, under Wyo. Stat. 1-16-502. The lien comes back dated to the revival, not to the original judgment. For the wider picture, see how long a judgment lien lasts, and how to renew it.

Land in another county

A lien in the county of entry does not spread on its own to land the debtor owns elsewhere.

The judgment binds only lands and tenements within the county in which it is entered, under Wyo. Stat. 1-17-302. Real estate the debtor owns in another Wyoming county is reached by a further step, not by the first filing.

In a second county, the clerk of the district court where a transcript is filed enters the judgment on that court's judgment records, in the same manner as judgments rendered in that court. See Wyo. Stat. 1-17-304⁵. That is the entry side of the move.

On a district court judgment, or on a circuit court judgment filed in the district court's judgment record, the creditor may file a transcript of the district court judgment record with the clerk of the district court and the county clerk of any other county where the debtor owns real estate. There the judgment is a lien on all the debtor's real estate from the date of filing with the county clerk, provided the transcript is filed with the clerk of district court in that county as well. See Wyo. Stat. 1-17-304. Each county is its own filing.

Homestead here, in one paragraph

Wyoming exempts a homestead up to a value, and the exemption turns on occupancy more than on paperwork.

Every resident is entitled to a homestead not exceeding one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000.00) in value, exempt from execution and attachment arising from any debt, contract or civil obligation entered into or incurred, under Wyo. Stat. 1-20-101⁶. Where two or more persons jointly own and occupy the same residence, each is entitled to the exemption, under Wyo. Stat. 1-20-102(b)⁷.

That exemption holds only while the place is occupied as a homestead by the owner or the person entitled to it, or that person's family. See Wyo. Stat. 1-20-102(a). The home qualifies in many forms: a house on a lot or on lands of any number of acres, or a house trailer or other movable home, whether or not it has wheels or rests on immovable support, under Wyo. Stat. 1-20-104⁸. So the limit is in value, not in acres.

Death changes who holds it. Where a person dies seized of a homestead leaving a surviving widow, husband or minor children, the survivor is entitled to the homestead; with no such survivor, the homestead is liable for the debts of the deceased, under Wyo. Stat. 1-20-103⁹. One other figure, $30,000.00, governs Wyoming's Probate Code alone, for the limit that code establishes, under Wyo. Stat. 2-7-508¹⁰. For other states, see homestead protection, state by state.

Where the records live

Two offices carry a Wyoming judgment lien, and the county clerk's record is the one that sets the date.

First, the county clerk is where the lien on land is made. Lands in the county of entry are bound from the day the judgment is filed with the county clerk, and such a judgment is recorded in the real estate records, under Wyo. Stat. 1-17-302. The searcher looks there.

Second comes the clerk of the district court. The circuit court transcript goes to both that clerk and the county clerk, and the lien begins from the county clerk's filing provided the district court filing came earlier or the same day. See Wyo. Stat. 1-17-306(a), 1-17-306(b). This page covers Wyoming only; the filing act and the clock differ in every other state, and a lien from outside Wyoming follows its own rules. See how a judgment becomes a lien, in all fifty states and DC.