§ 34.063.Improper Endorsement of Writ

A liability provision about paperwork, and the paperwork determines who gets paid first.

Numbering matters because priority among execution creditors follows the order of delivery. An officer receiving several writs against the same debtor on the same day must number them as received, and that sequence decides who is satisfied out of limited property.

The officer and sureties are liable where an officer receives more than one writ on the same day against the same person and fails to number them as received, or falsely endorses a writ — and liable only for actual damages suffered by the plaintiff because of the failure or false endorsement.

"Only for actual damages" is the pattern throughout this subchapter. Officer liability is compensatory, and no exemplary recovery is provided.

Four elements fall on the plaintiff, and they are demanding.

That the officer failed to properly number or endorse the writ.

That the failure precluded the levy of executable property owned by the judgment debtor. Causation, and it is where most such claims will fail — the plaintiff must show there was property that would have been reached.

That the property was not exempt from execution or levy. Property the officer could not have taken supports no damages.

And that the plaintiff suffered actual damages.

Read together, the four require the plaintiff to reconstruct what would have happened — which property existed, that it was reachable, and what it was worth.

A false endorsement is the more serious of the two failures, since it misstates the record rather than omitting from it, but the section treats both on the same terms.