§ 1324.Claiming agent’s duties after levy

Once property is levied upon, someone has to answer for it, and section 1324 assigns that responsibility to the claiming agent. The agent must hold and safely keep all property or debts paid, delivered, or transferred to it, or taken into its custody, so it remains available to satisfy any judgment eventually entered against the defendant. Any money collected must go into an interest-bearing trust account at a national or state bank or trust company, held for the benefit of the parties. When urgency demands it, a court can order the property sold or otherwise disposed of on terms it specifies, with notice to the parties and to any garnishee holding the property.

The section also builds in a paper trail. Within fifteen days after service of the order of attachment, or promptly after the order is vacated or annulled, the claiming agent must file an inventory listing the property seized, a description of any real property levied upon, the names and addresses of everyone served with the order, and an estimate of the value of everything levied upon. Retention of the property remains subject to the claiming agent's fees and expenses, if any.

This accounting duty works alongside section 1311-b's money judgment remedy, which comes into play when the property described in a forfeiture judgment cannot later be found, and section 1311(9)'s criminal sanctions for anyone who conceals or dissipates attached property in contempt of a court order.