Rule 85.10.Nonowner of Property may Post Bond--When--Condition of Bond.

Attached property is not always in the owner’s hands. A repair shop, warehouse, or bailee may be holding it when the sheriff levies. Rule 85.10 gives that nonowner — as Rule 85.01 defines the term — a bond option of its own, separate from the owner’s bond under Rule 85.09. The nonowner can post a sufficient bond, approved by the court, executed as principal with one or more sufficient sureties, to retain or regain possession at any time.

Unlike the owner’s bond, which runs to the claimant, this bond runs to the State of Missouri, echoing the structure of the claimant’s bond in Rule 85.08. Its amount is capped the same way as the owner’s bond: the lesser of the property’s value or the amount of the claim and costs. The condition, though, is different from the owner’s bond. Instead of promising to pay a money judgment, the nonowner promises that the property itself will be forthcoming as the court directs — recognizing that a nonowner typically has no personal liability on the underlying claim and is only a custodian of the property caught up in someone else’s dispute.

Rule 85.07 requires that this bond option be explained to the nonowner in the notice served when the writ issues. Because a nonowner may have no interest in fighting the underlying claim on the merits, this rule gives a plain way to stay out of the dispute while still protecting the property in that person’s custody.