§ 61.023.Bond

The security a plaintiff must give, and it is the defendant’s principal protection.

Before a writ may be issued, the plaintiff must execute a bond with four features.

Two or more good and sufficient sureties. Not one — a requirement unusual enough to be worth noticing, and a real obstacle to obtaining the writ casually.

Payable to the defendant. The bond runs to the person whose property is being seized, so they can enforce it directly.

In an amount fixed by the judge or justice issuing the writ. The amount is judicial rather than formulaic, so it can be set against the value of what is to be taken.

Conditioned on the plaintiff prosecuting his suit to effect and paying all damages and costs adjudged against him for wrongful attachment.

Both conditions matter. A plaintiff who obtains a writ and then abandons the suit has breached the bond, and a plaintiff whose attachment is found wrongful answers for the damages.

"Wrongful attachment" is a claim in its own right, and the bond is what makes it worth bringing — a defendant whose business was interrupted by a seizure has sureties to look to rather than only a plaintiff.

The bond is delivered to the officer issuing the writ for approval and filed with the papers of the case.

Requiring approval before issuance is what sequences the protection correctly. The security exists before the seizure, not after it.