§ 64.056.Liability of Persons Receiving Receivership Property

The provision that keeps a discharge from extinguishing claims, and it reaches the owner.

A person to whom a receiver delivers property held in receivership — including the owner of the property, a person who receives it for the owner, or an assignee of the owner — is liable to the extent of the value of the property for the liabilities of the receiver arising during the receivership that are unpaid at the time of discharge.

Naming the owner expressly is the point of the sentence. Property returned to its owner at the close of a receivership carries the receivership’s unpaid debts with it.

The liability is capped at the value of the property received, so it is not a personal exposure beyond what the person got.

The recipient may be made a defendant to a suit against the receiver, and if judgment is rendered against the receiver the court shall also render judgment against that defendant.

That produces the judgment in one proceeding rather than requiring a second suit to reach the person who now holds the property.

Subsection (b) supplies the security. A judgment against a receiver, or an unpaid claim arising during the receivership that has not been sued on by the discharge date, is a preference lien on the property held by the receiver at discharge.

Including claims not yet sued on is a considerable extension. A creditor who had not started proceedings by the discharge date still holds a lien on the property.

The lien is again superior to the mortgage lien of the mortgagee who instituted the receivership, repeating the subordination the chapter applies throughout.

The practical warning is for anyone taking property out of a receivership. The value received is the measure of the exposure, and the unpaid liabilities should be established before accepting delivery.