813.16.Receivers.

Section 813.16 sets out the recognized grounds for appointing a receiver in a Wisconsin civil action. A party may apply for one by showing an apparent right to or interest in property held by an adverse party, where the property or its rents and profits are at risk of being lost or materially impaired. A receiver may also be appointed by or after a judgment, to carry it into effect or dispose of the property as the judgment directs; to preserve property during an appeal, or after an unsatisfied execution and a judgment debtor’s refusal to apply property toward the debt, or in a creditor’s action under chapter 816; when a corporation has dissolved, is insolvent or in imminent danger of it, or has forfeited its corporate rights; or, more generally, consistent with practice existing when the 1856 code took effect, except as this chapter otherwise provides.

Before taking control of property, a receiver must give the clerk of court a bond, with sureties the appointing judge approves, sufficient to cover everything likely to come into the receiver’s hands.

The section closes with a targeted rule for regulated financial institutions: when a savings and loan association or savings bank supervised by the division of banking, or a corporation supervised by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, seeks appointment of a receiver under the property-at-risk ground, the court must appoint an officer of that institution as receiver to serve without compensation, unless the opposing party objects.