§ 62.022.Application

The application, and the word governing it is "specific".

The application must be made under oath and must set forth the specific facts stating the nature of the plaintiff’s claim, the amount in controversy, if any, and the facts justifying issuance of the writ.

"Specific facts" appears twice in substance — for the claim and for the justification — and it forecloses an application that recites the statutory grounds in the statute’s own words.

The requirement has real bite because of the dissolution provision. At a dissolution hearing the writ must be dissolved unless the party who secured it proves the specific facts alleged — so whatever was sworn is what must be proved.

An application pleaded in general terms therefore fails twice over: it does not satisfy this section, and it leaves nothing specific to prove at the hearing.

"The amount in controversy, if any" acknowledges that some suits have none. A pure possession dispute over a chattel may involve no sum, and the qualifier avoids requiring one.

The oath is what exposes the applicant. A sworn application supports a wrongful sequestration counterclaim if the writ is dissolved, and in a consumer goods case supports statutory damages.

Note that the chapter requires no bond in this section. Attachment conditions issuance on a bond with two sureties; here the bond comes from the rules of civil procedure rather than from the chapter, and the statutory protections are the judicial issuance, the notice on the writ, and the ten-day dissolution hearing.

The application is the foundation for all of those, which is why the drafting of it repays care.