In satisfaction of a prior judgment against the defendant, the plaintiff sought an order for garnishment of the monthly pension of the defendant, who was a retired police officer. The legislation that would authorize such an order applied to "wages, debts, earnings, salary, income from trust funds or profits ... due and owing the the judgment debtor." Heher J. granted the order on the reasoning that pension payments were debts that the Pension Commission owed the defendant as they became payable, notwithstanding that pensions payable by a public authority were not payable pursuant to a contractual obligation. He stated (at Atlantic Reporter p. 678-79):
The ordinary legal sense of the term "debt" is an obligation for the payment of money founded upon a contract, express or implied. ... But it is also used in the larger sense of that which one person is bound to pay to another under any form of obligation....
In the main, the distinguishing characteristic of such an obligation is that it is for a sum certain, or a sum readily reducible to a certainty. ... It is an obligation to pay a sum certain, or a sum which may be ascertained by a simple mathematical calculation from known facts, regardless of whether the liability arises from contract or is implied or imposed by law.