§ 8.01-121.Final judgment.

Section 8.01-121 tells the court what to do once a detinue case reaches final judgment: dispose of the property or its proceeds according to the rights of the people entitled to them. The section then focuses on a common scenario — a contract that, whatever its form or express terms, was made to secure payment of money to the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s assignor. When the plaintiff prevails under that kind of contract, judgment is entered either for the amount due under it or for the specific property, plus costs.

The defendant, not the plaintiff, gets to choose which way to satisfy that judgment: pay the amount due, or surrender the specific property. The court may give the defendant up to thirty days to make that election, so long as the defendant provides whatever security the court considers sufficient in the meantime. When the property at issue is an animal, the court has the added option of ordering the animal returned to the prevailing plaintiff without regard to any alternative method of recovery, sidestepping the usual pay-or-surrender choice.

If the defendant chooses to surrender the property, once it is delivered to the plaintiff or the plaintiff repossesses it, the plaintiff may sell the property following the applicable provisions of the Uniform Commercial Code, with all the rights and responsibilities that framework provides.