Rule 70.Judgment for Specific Acts; Vesting Title

Rule 70 addresses a familiar problem after a case is over: what happens when the losing party won't do what the judgment tells them to do? If a judgment orders someone to execute a conveyance of land, deliver deeds or other documents, or perform some other specific act, and that party misses the deadline the judgment sets, the court doesn't have to wait indefinitely or start a new lawsuit. It can appoint someone else to do the act at the disobedient party's expense, and the result counts exactly as if the original party had done it.

For real or personal property located in Mississippi, the court has a more direct tool available. Rather than ordering someone to sign over title, the judgment itself can divest title from one party and vest it in another. That judgment then works the same as a properly executed conveyance — no signature needed, because the court's own order does the transferring.

When a judgment calls for delivering possession rather than transferring title, Rule 70(c) gives the sheriff a simple path forward: a certified copy of the judgment or order is all the authority the sheriff needs to seize the property and hand it to whoever the judgment names. And running alongside every remedy in this rule is Rule 70(d)'s reminder that contempt stays on the table — the court can hold a noncompliant party in contempt in addition to, not instead of, appointing someone else to act or vesting title directly.

Rule 70 only comes into play after judgment. A party trying to stop conduct or secure property before a case is decided has to look to other remedies in the rules, such as an injunction, rather than this one.