§ 25-1540.Sale on execution; disposition of proceeds.

An execution sale exists to raise enough money to satisfy a judgment — nothing more. Section 25-1540 addresses what happens when a sale does better than that: the sheriff or other officer conducting the sale ends up holding more cash than the writ, interest, and costs require. That surplus belongs to the debtor, called the “defendant in execution” in the statute’s older phrasing, not to the creditor and not to the officer who ran the sale.

The debtor has to ask for the money — the statute says the officer pays “on demand.” It does not arrive automatically in the mail. If the debtor has died, the debtor’s legal representatives, such as an executor or administrator, can make the demand and collect in the debtor’s place.

An officer who collects a surplus and then refuses or neglects to pay it over when asked does not just breach a courtesy. Sections 25-1545 and 25-1547 make that refusal a specific ground for amercement, a penalty procedure that can leave the officer personally liable for the withheld amount plus ten percent.