Rule 85.22.Receiver--When Appointed.

Seized property does not manage itself, and leaving it sitting untended under a writ can create its own problems, from deterioration to lost business value. Rule 85.22 gives the court a tool to address that: once property is seized on attachment, the court may appoint a receiver under Rule 68.02, Missouri’s general receivership rule, to take charge of it.

The rule is flexible about who can serve in that role. It expressly allows the sheriff — who may already be involved in executing the writ under Rule 85.05 and Rule 85.21 — to serve as receiver, but it does not require that. The court can instead appoint some other person or a corporation, whichever makes the most sense given the nature of the property and what needs to be done with it.

This rule works alongside Rule 85.23, which lets the court go a step further and order a prejudgment sale of personal property that is perishable, likely to depreciate, or expensive to keep. A receiver appointed under Rule 85.22 may be the person best positioned to identify when property fits one of those categories and to carry out a sale ordered under the following rule.