§ 34.004.Levy on Property Conveyed to Third Party

A protection for the third party who took the debtor’s property, and it is conditional.

Property that the judgment debtor has sold, mortgaged, or conveyed in trust may not be seized in execution if the purchaser, mortgagee, or trustee points out other property of the debtor in the county that is sufficient to satisfy the execution.

The protection has to be earned. It is not that transferred property is beyond execution; it is that the transferee can direct the officer elsewhere.

Three conditions bound it. The property pointed out must belong to the debtor, must be in the county, and must be sufficient to satisfy the execution.

The sufficiency requirement is what keeps this from being a delaying tactic. Pointing out property worth a fraction of the judgment does not protect the transferred property.

The county limit follows from what an officer can do. An officer levies within their own county, so property elsewhere is not an alternative the officer could take.

The rule is an old equitable idea in statutory form: a creditor entitled to be paid should take the debtor’s own property before reaching property in a third party’s hands.

Three transferees are protected, and the list covers the ordinary ways property leaves a debtor — an outright sale, a mortgage, and a conveyance in trust.

The burden of acting falls on the transferee. An officer has no duty to search for the debtor’s property, so a purchaser who says nothing will find the property seized.