§ 34.062.Duty of Successor Officer

A continuity rule, and it prevents a writ from dying with an officer’s term.

If the officer who receives a writ of execution dies or goes out of office before the writ is returned, his successor or the officer authorized to discharge the duties of the office shall proceed in the same manner as the receiving officer was required to proceed.

The duty attaches to the office, not to the person. A writ delivered to the sheriff is delivered to whoever holds that office when action is required.

Without this the creditor would face a needless obstacle. An election, a resignation or a death would require a new writ, and in a county where the office changed hands mid-term the creditor would lose the time already spent.

Two events are covered — death and going out of office — and both are addressed identically.

"His successor or the officer authorized to discharge the duties of the office" covers the interval before a successor takes up the post, when someone else is discharging the duties.

"Shall proceed in the same manner as the receiving officer was required to proceed" imports the whole of the original duty, including the deadlines running on the writ and the manner of levy and return.

So the successor is not starting over. The writ continues on its own timetable, and the successor steps into it where it stands.

This connects to the custody provisions in the officer liability chapter, under which deposited property and its inventory transfer to a successor against a receipt — the same principle applied to what the office holds.