§ 61.042.Attachment of Personalty

Custody of attached personalty, with three ways out.

The officer attaching personal property shall retain possession until final judgment unless one of three things happens.

The default is what makes attachment effective. The property leaves the defendant’s hands and stays in the officer’s until the case ends, which may be years.

It is also what makes the remedy severe. A business whose equipment or inventory is attached may be unable to operate while the suit is tried.

Replevy is the defendant’s answer. The defendant posts a replevy bond and takes the property back, substituting the bond for the goods as the plaintiff’s security.

That is usually the sensible course for both sides. The defendant keeps operating, and the plaintiff holds a bond that will answer for a judgment — which is why a separate section governs the judgment against a replevying defendant and the sureties.

Sale as provided by law is the second route. Perishable goods, and property that would cost more to keep than it is worth, are sold and the proceeds held instead.

The attachment lien follows the money, extending to the proceeds of attached personal property that has been sold.

The third route belongs to someone else entirely: property claimed by a third party who posts bond and tries his right to the property.

That is trial of right of property, the procedure for a stranger whose goods were seized for another’s debt — and the following section points to it directly.