811.21.Damages, defendant when to recover.

Attachment carries real risk for a defendant, and section 811.21 makes sure that risk comes with a remedy when the attachment turns out to have been unjustified. If the defendant prevails in the action, or if the action is discontinued, the defendant is entitled to have the resulting damages assessed and to receive judgment for them.

The damages covered are specific to what the attachment did to the property: the taking and detention of property attached, the sale of any such property, or injury to it. Rather than leaving the defendant to guess at what is recoverable, the section ties the remedy directly to the harms the rest of chapter 811 makes possible — seizure under section 811.10, sale of perishable property under section 811.14, and the general custody and handling the officer exercises under section 811.15.

This closing provision gives the whole attachment chapter its counterweight: a plaintiff who invokes attachment does so knowing that if the case does not go the plaintiff’s way, the defendant has a direct path to recovering for what the attachment cost.