§ 61.044.Claim on Attached Personalty by Third Party

The third party’s remedy, and it points to a procedure rather than creating one.

A person other than the defendant may claim attached personal property by making an affidavit and giving bond in the manner provided by law for trial of right of property.

The situation is common and blameless. An officer levies at the defendant’s premises on goods that belong to a lessor, a supplier, a spouse or a business partner, and the officer has no duty to determine ownership before acting.

Trial of right of property is built for exactly that question. The claimant asserts ownership by affidavit and bond, and the issue of title is tried directly rather than through a tort claim.

Both an affidavit and a bond are required. The affidavit asserts the claim; the bond answers if it fails, which is what keeps the procedure from being a free way to delay an attachment.

The custody section makes this one of three ways attached goods leave the officer’s hands, alongside replevy by the defendant and sale.

The remedy is exclusive against the officer. The execution chapter provides that trial of right of property is the only remedy against a sheriff or constable for wrongful levy on personal property, and it names attachment among the writs it covers.

So a third party cannot sue the officer in conversion — the route is this one.

Note that the section covers personal property only. A third party claiming attached real property is not addressed here, and the attachment of land operates through the records rather than by seizure.