§ 34.047.Distribution of Sale Proceeds

What happens to the money, in three rules.

An officer shall deliver money collected on execution to the entitled party at the earliest opportunity.

"At the earliest opportunity" is a strict standard, and the chapter backs it: failing to deliver money on demand exposes the officer and the sureties to the amount collected plus one percent a month.

The officer is entitled to retain from the proceeds of a sale of personal property an amount equal to the reasonable expenses incurred in making the levy and keeping the property.

Two limits sit in that sentence. It applies to personal property only, and it covers reasonable expenses of levying and keeping — not of the sale generally.

The costs of keeping are what make this necessary. Seized personal property must be stored, secured and sometimes maintained — a vehicle, livestock, equipment — and those costs fall on the officer until this provision returns them.

Real property is excluded because there is nothing to keep. Land does not need storage.

If more money is received than is sufficient to satisfy the executions held by the officer, the officer shall immediately pay the surplus to the defendant or the defendant’s agent or attorney.

The surplus belongs to the debtor, and the duty is immediate. Execution exists to satisfy a judgment, not to strip a debtor of value beyond it.

Note "the executions held by the officer", in the plural. An officer holding several writs against the same debtor satisfies all of them before any surplus arises.