(a) Distribution of Proceeds of Personal Property. After deduction for and payment of fees, expenses and any taxes levied upon sale, delivery, transfer or payment, the proceeds of personal property or debt acquired by a receiver or a sheriff or other officer authorized to enforce the judgment shall be distributed to the judgment creditor and any excess shall be paid over to the judgment debtor. No distribution of proceeds shall be made until fifteen days after service of the execution except upon order of the court.
§ 5234.Distribution of proceeds of personal property; priorities.
Article 52. Enforcement of Money Judgments · Last amended 2001 · Last verified July 21, 2026
In one sentenceCPLR 5234 directs how proceeds from levied personal property or debt get divided after fees and taxes, and sets the priority rules among competing executions and other judgment creditors, giving child support obligations first claim ahead of any other assignment, levy, or process.
Full Text of CPLR 5234
(b) Priority Among Execution Creditors. Where two or more executions or orders of attachment are issued against the same judgment debtor or obligor and delivered to the same enforcement officer or issued by the support collection unit designated by the appropriate social services district, they shall be satisfied out of the proceeds of personal property or debt levied upon by the officer or by the support collection unit in the order in which they were delivered, such executions for child support shall have priority over any other assignment, levy or process. Where two or more executions or orders of attachment are issued against the same judgment debtor or obligor and delivered to different enforcement officers, and personal property or debt is levied upon within the jurisdiction of all of the officers, the proceeds shall be first applied in satisfaction of the execution or order of attachment delivered to the officer who levied, and thereafter shall be applied in satisfaction of the executions or orders of attachment delivered to those of the other officers who, before the proceeds are distributed, make a demand upon the officer who levied, in the order of such demands, except that such executions for child support shall have priority over any other assignment, levy or process. Where there is more than one past-due child support order, the proceeds shall be applied to the orders in proportion to the amount each order’s claim bears to the combined total. Nothing herein shall be deemed to defeat or impair the rights of any secured party as such term is defined in paragraph seventy-two of subsection (a) of section 9–102 of the uniform commercial code. An execution or order of attachment returned by an officer before a levy or delivered to him after the proceeds of the levy have been distributed shall not be satisfied out of those proceeds.
(c) Priority of Other Judgment Creditors. Where personal property or debt has been ordered delivered, transferred or paid, or a receiver thereof has been appointed by order, or a receivership has been extended thereto by order, and the order is filed before the property or debt is levied upon, the rights of the judgment creditor who secured the order are superior to those of the judgment creditor entitled to the proceeds of the levy. Where two or more such orders affecting the same interest in personal property or debt are filed, the proceeds of the property or debt shall be applied in the order of filing. Where delivery, transfer, or payment to the judgment creditor, a receiver, or a sheriff or other officer is not completed within sixty days after an order is filed, the judgment creditor who secured the order is divested of priority, unless otherwise specified in the order or in an extension order filed within the sixty days.
Plain-English Summary
After a sheriff or receiver collects money from personal property or a debt owed to the judgment debtor, subdivision (a) requires fees, expenses, and any taxes to be paid first, with the balance going to the judgment creditor and any leftover amount returned to the debtor. Distribution generally can't happen until fifteen days after service of the execution, unless a court orders otherwise, which builds in a short window for competing claims to surface.
Subdivision (b) sorts out what happens when more than one execution or order of attachment targets the same debtor. Multiple executions delivered to the same officer get paid in delivery order, and executions for child support jump ahead of any other assignment, levy, or process, including other money judgments, with proceeds split proportionally when more than one past-due child support order is in play. When different executions go to different officers who each manage to levy, the officer who levied gets paid first, and the others get paid in the order they make a demand, again subject to child support's priority. Secured parties under UCC Article 9 keep whatever rights they already have; this section doesn't touch that separate scheme.
Subdivision (c) addresses a different kind of priority fight, between a judgment creditor entitled to levy proceeds and one who has already obtained a court order directing delivery, transfer, or payment of the same property, or the appointment or extension of a receiver over it. Whoever files first generally wins, but that priority isn't permanent: if delivery, transfer, or payment isn't completed within sixty days of the order being filed, the creditor who obtained it loses that priority unless the order itself, or a timely extension, says otherwise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who gets paid first from a sheriff's sale of personal property?
Fees, expenses, and taxes come out first, then the judgment creditor gets paid, and any excess goes back to the debtor. Among competing creditors, priority generally follows the order executions were delivered to the enforcing officer, subject to the special priority given to child support.
How does child support priority work under CPLR 5234?
Executions for child support are paid ahead of any other assignment, levy, or process against the same proceeds, regardless of when other executions were delivered. If more than one past-due child support order exists, the proceeds are divided among them in proportion to what each order is owed.
What happens when two creditors deliver executions to different sheriffs?
The sheriff who levied on the property gets paid first out of the proceeds. Any other sheriffs holding executions against the same debtor get paid afterward, in the order they made a demand on the sheriff who levied, before the proceeds are distributed.
Do secured creditors outrank judgment creditors under CPLR 5234?
The section expressly preserves the rights of secured parties as defined under the Uniform Commercial Code, so nothing in CPLR 5234's priority scheme is meant to defeat or impair a secured party's existing rights.
Is there a waiting period before proceeds from a levy get distributed?
Yes. Under subdivision (a), proceeds from personal property or a debt collected under an execution can't be distributed until fifteen days after the execution was served, unless the court orders an earlier distribution.
Advisory Committee Notes
Subd (a) of this section is based on part of CPA § 685, the third sentence of CPA § 687; the third sentence of CPA § 795 and a modification of part of CPA § 798. Cf. CPA § 687-a(4).
Subd (b) of this section derives from CPA § 680, slightly modified, and is intended to clarify, and modify slightly, former law. Cf. CPA § 682.
Subd (c) of this section is new. It is intended to clarify former law. It indicates that priority is not gained merely by serving a subpoena on a garnishee, but is only gained when property is ordered delivered or paid or transferred to a receiver, and only as to that particular property. The last sentence is needed to prevent a creditor who secures such an order from sitting on his rights to the detriment of another creditor.
Amendment History
Formerly § 5233, add, L 1962, ch 308; renumbered § 5234, L 1962, ch 315, § 5, eff Sept 1, 1963; L 1982, ch 882, § 3, eff Sept 1, 1982; L 1993, ch 59, § 16; L 2001, ch 84, § 40, eff July 1, 2001.
Source & verification. Provision text, History, and Advisory
Committee Notes are reproduced verbatim from the Consolidated Laws of New York.
Last verified July 21, 2026.
· Official source
Also known as: priority of judgment creditors New Yorkdistribution of sheriff sale proceedschild support priority over other executionscompeting executions priority New York