811.16.Bond for release of property; estoppel.

Just as a replevin defendant can reclaim seized property with a bond, an attachment defendant has a parallel option under section 811.16. At any time before judgment, the defendant may deliver to the officer who attached the property a bond, executed by two sureties, promising that they will pay the plaintiff, on demand, the amount of any judgment recovered against the defendant in the action, with costs, up to the sum named in the bond plus interest.

The section fixes how large that bond must be. It must equal at least the amount claimed in the plaintiff’s affidavit, or, at the defendant’s option, the appraised value of the property that was attached. If the attached property is real estate, the court or a judge fixes the bond amount instead, on notice to the parties.

The sureties on this bond justify the same way sureties do under section 811.06, and, as with the additional-security bond in section 811.07, they may be accepted if they are jointly responsible for the required sum rather than each independently meeting it. The section’s title also flags an estoppel effect: once the sureties commit to the bond’s promise, the defendant and the sureties are bound by its terms, standing in as security for whatever judgment the plaintiff ultimately wins.