Rule 85.23.Prejudgment Sale of Personal Property.

Holding onto attached property until judgment can sometimes destroy its value instead of preserving it — perishable goods spoil, some assets lose value quickly, and other property may cost too much to store or maintain. Rule 85.23 addresses that risk by letting the court order a sale of attached personal property before judgment, in three specific circumstances: the property is likely to perish, it is likely to depreciate to a considerable extent, or keeping it will cause undue expense.

The rule builds in a notice safeguard even for this emergency-style remedy. The court’s order for sale may be made only after reasonable notice, if giving that notice is practicable. That qualifier matters — some property cannot wait for standard notice procedures without losing most or all of its value, and the rule allows the court to proceed without full notice in those situations, but only when notice is not practicable, not as a matter of convenience.

Once the court orders the sale, the mechanics are not reinvented for attachment; Rule 85.23 directs that the sale of personal property be made as provided in Rule 76.13, the general rule governing sales of levied property. This keeps the actual sale process consistent with how sales happen elsewhere in Missouri civil procedure, while Rule 85.23 supplies the specific grounds and notice standard that justify ordering a sale before judgment in an attachment case.