Texas Prejudgment Attachment, Garnishment, and Sequestration

By Hank FasthoffJuly 6, 2026

A creditor can secure property before judgment only by satisfying the statute and procedural rules governing the requested writ. Texas law provides prejudgment attachment, garnishment, and sequestration for different claims and different property. Each remedy requires sworn proof, judicial findings, a bond, and procedures that protect the defendant after issuance.

These writs interfere with property before the plaintiff proves liability. Texas courts describe garnishment as a summary and harsh remedy that must strictly conform to the statute. Attachment and sequestration impose the same demand for statutory grounds, supporting facts, and compliance with the governing procedure. You should select the writ that fits the claim, identify property the writ can restrain, and prepare the application as evidence for the hearing.

The Three Writs Serve Different Purposes

Attachment secures a defendant's real or personal property for payment of a debt. Once an officer levies the writ, Sections 61.061 and 61.062 create an attachment lien and provide for foreclosure if the plaintiff obtains judgment.

Garnishment restrains a debt, money, or other property that a third party owes or holds for the defendant. A bank account and an account receivable present common examples because the bank or customer becomes the garnishee and must answer concerning property or debt in its possession.

Sequestration preserves identified real property, personal property, or fixtures involved in the lawsuit. It applies to title, possession, foreclosure, lien, and security interest disputes described in Section 62.001, subject to the statutory ground that fits the property and claim. You should select the writ based on the property and then prove the ground because choosing by instinct invites dissolution.

Prejudgment Attachment

Section 61.001 requires proof of four elements. The defendant must be justly indebted to the plaintiff, the plaintiff must seek attachment without an intent to injure or harass, the plaintiff must show that it will probably lose the debt without the writ, and one of the specific grounds in Section 61.002 must exist.

Section 61.002 lists nine grounds. They cover a nonresident or foreign corporation, a defendant preparing to leave Texas permanently after refusing to pay or secure the debt, a defendant hiding from service, and property hidden to defraud creditors. The remaining grounds address removal of property from Texas without sufficient assets left behind, removal from the county with fraudulent intent, disposition of property with fraudulent intent, conversion of property into money to place it beyond creditors' reach, and a debt for property obtained through false pretenses. Commercial applications often rise or fall on the fraud related grounds, which require conduct evidence, a transfer, a listing, an admission, rather than suspicion.

A plaintiff can seek attachment when filing suit or while the lawsuit remains pending. Under Section 61.004, a plaintiff can also attach property for a debt that hasn't matured, but the court can't enter final judgment until the debt becomes due. A writ under that provision preserves property without accelerating a debt the parties didn't agree to accelerate.

Attachment reaches real property and personal property. An officer retains attached personal property unless the defendant replevies it, the officer sells it as permitted by law, or a third party claims it through the trial of right of property procedure. For real property, the officer files the writ and the relevant return with the county clerk where the property is located.

Prejudgment Garnishment

Section 63.001 provides three grounds for garnishment. One arises when an original attachment has issued. Another applies when a plaintiff sues for a just, due, and unpaid debt, knows of no Texas property subject to execution sufficient to satisfy it, and seeks the writ without an intent to injure the defendant or garnishee. The third applies after a valid, subsisting judgment and belongs in post judgment enforcement rather than prejudgment practice.

A prejudgment garnishment claim based on debt must be liquidated. The amount can't be contingent, must be capable of definite calculation through ordinary evidence, and can't rest in the fact finder's discretion. In *In re ATW Investments, Inc., No. 04-17-00045-CV, 2017 WL 1066803, at 2 through *4 (Tex. App. San Antonio Mar. 22, 2017, orig. proceeding), the court ordered dissolution because the plaintiffs sought uncertain damages on tort and contract theories. A demand supported by a note, loan documents, payment history, and a defined interest calculation presents a different record.

In *Texas Global Equity Fund XII, LLC v. Breckenridge Development 2019, LLC*, No. 03-24-00308-CV (Tex. App. Austin Apr. 17, 2026), the Austin Court of Appeals applied that distinction. Loan documents, evidence of default and acceleration, and testimony supporting a balance of $7,575,926.01 established a liquidated, due, and unpaid debt. An admission that the defendant lacked $4 million in unencumbered liquid assets supported the separate requirement that it lacked sufficient property subject to execution. Read together, the two cases supply a checklist. You should bring the note, default, acceleration, calculation, and proof that the debtor can't satisfy the debt, or you should expect dissolution.

Service restrains the garnishee from paying a debt or delivering the defendant's property. Under Section 63.003, a transfer in violation of that restraint is void to the extent necessary to satisfy the plaintiff's demand. Rule 659 requires the garnishee to answer under oath concerning debts, effects, and persons known to possess them.

Current wages for personal service are exempt under Section 63.004, except as another state or federal law provides. Child support, spousal maintenance, federal tax collection, and federal student loan collection operate under separate authority. You shouldn't treat those programs as exceptions created by Chapter 63 or assume that a deposit retains the same protection as wages in the employer's hands.

Sequestration

Sequestration requires a claim to identified property and a ground listed in Section 62.001. For personal property or fixtures, the statute covers title, possession, and enforcement of a mortgage, lien, or security interest when the facts support a reasonable conclusion of immediate danger that the possessor will conceal, dispose of, mistreat, waste, destroy, or remove the property from the county.

Real property receives separate treatment. The statute covers title, possession, and enforcement of a mortgage or lien when the possessor threatens injury, waste, or conversion of timber, rents, fruits, or revenue. It also covers property taken through force or violence and specified real property actions against a nonresident defendant.

An unpaid secured debt doesn't establish immediate danger to collateral. The application must connect current facts to the statutory risk. Evidence that equipment is being advertised for sale, transferred among affiliates, stripped for parts, stored outside the agreed location, allowed to deteriorate, or prepared for removal can support the finding. A statement that movable equipment could be moved describes the asset, not an immediate danger. You should photograph, preserve, and date the danger evidence before filing because a dissolution hearing can occur within 10 days.

Under Section 62.003, a plaintiff can sequester personal property subject to a mortgage or lien before the right of action accrues. The court can't enter final judgment until the right of action accrues, so the writ preserves the collateral without deciding a premature merits claim.

Applications, Hearings, and Court Findings

Rules 592, 658, and 696 govern applications for attachment, garnishment, and sequestration. Each application must state the statutory ground and the specific facts supporting the findings required for issuance. Affidavits must present personal knowledge and facts admissible in evidence, although an affiant relying on information and belief can state the grounds for that belief.

A prejudgment writ requires a written court order after a hearing. The rule permits an ex parte hearing subject to the court's discretion. Before issuing the writ, the court must find specific facts supporting the statutory ground, set the maximum value of property subject to the writ, and set the plaintiff's bond and the defendant's replevy bond.

Sequestration adds requirements tied to the property. The application and order must describe each item with enough certainty to permit identification, state its value, and identify the county where it's located. A generic reference to all equipment, inventory, or property in the defendant's possession invites a dissolution motion and an ownership dispute.

You should prepare the hearing record as though the defendant will challenge every stated fact within days. Contracts, account records, public filings, bank records, communications, photographs, location data, testimony, and authenticated third party documents can establish the debt and the risk to property. Conclusions copied from the statute won't substitute for evidence, so you should write the affidavit like a direct examination, because that's the job it will do.

Bonds, Notice, and Replevy

The clerk can't issue a prejudgment writ until the plaintiff files the bond set by the court. Rules 592a, 658a, and 698 require security payable to the defendant for damages adjudged from wrongful issuance. The bond amount should reflect the property restrained and the business harm a wrongful writ could cause, and you should price the bond into the strategy early, because a writ you can't bond is a writ you don't have.

After levy or service, the rules require prompt delivery of the writ, application, affidavits, court order, and notice of the defendant's rights. An individual whose property or account is frozen must also receive the protected property notice and claim forms required by Rules 663a and 679b. A defendant can seek dissolution or other relief for defective notice even when the original application established a statutory ground.

A defendant can replevy attached, garnished, or sequestered property by filing the bond required by the applicable rule. Replevy substitutes the bond for the property while the lawsuit proceeds. A court can also review the bond amount and, in specified circumstances, authorize substitution of property of equal value.

Motions to Dissolve or Modify

Under Rules 608, 664a, and 712a, a defendant or qualifying intervenor can seek dissolution or modification on intrinsic or extrinsic grounds. Filing the motion stays further proceedings under the writ, apart from measures needed to preserve property or address perishable property.

For attachment and sequestration, the court must conduct a prompt hearing and determine the motion within 10 days unless the parties agree to an extension. Rule 664a requires the court to determine a garnishment motion within 10 days unless the court extends the deadline for good cause. A plaintiff bears the burden of proving the statutory grounds relied on for issuance, while the movant must prove other grounds, including a claim that the writ restrains property worth more than the amount necessary to secure the debt.

A dissolution hearing tests evidence, not the sufficiency of the original affidavit alone. In Texas Global Equity Fund, the court reviewed loan documents, admissions, declarations, and hearing testimony before concluding that the plaintiff proved each garnishment ground. If you're defending the writ, you should address the debt, available property, intent, ownership, exemptions, service, and the garnishee's actual obligation rather than rely on the economic injury caused by restraint.

Exempt Property and Competing Ownership Claims

No prejudgment writ can lawfully secure exempt property for an ordinary commercial debt. Texas protects homesteads, current wages, and specified personal property, and federal law protects designated benefits and accounts. You should identify the property and applicable exemption before seeking a writ because a broad request can restrain money or property the creditor has no right to take.

Ownership can present a separate dispute. Joint accounts, trust property, pledged receivables, property leased from another company, and assets assigned before service require evidence of the defendant's interest. A garnishee can deny indebtedness or possession, and another claimant can intervene or use the procedure that applies to a third party property claim.

Liability for a Wrongful Writ

A dissolved writ can flip the case, with the creditor defending the bond instead of collecting the debt. Each plaintiff's bond secures damages adjudged from wrongful issuance. Dissolution and wrongful issuance require separate proof for attachment and garnishment, with liability depending on the writ, the reason it failed, the governing claim, and proof that the challenged restraint caused recoverable loss. You should evaluate lost use, operating disruption, financing costs, property damage, and litigation expenses before requesting or attacking a writ.

Chapter 62 provides additional rules for sequestration. Under Sections 62.044 and 62.045, a damages claim after dissolution is a compulsory counterclaim, and the party who sought dissolution can recover reasonable attorney's fees incurred in obtaining it. When a dissolved writ sought consumer goods, Section 62.045 provides the greater of $100, the contracted finance charge, or actual damages, plus reasonable attorney's fees, subject to its bona fide error defense.

A bankruptcy filing changes what a creditor can do. Section 362 of the Bankruptcy Code imposes an automatic stay that bars continuation of collection activity and acts to obtain possession or control of estate property. The writ's lien status, perfection date, preference exposure, and treatment in bankruptcy require separate analysis before anyone instructs an officer, bank, or other garnishee to proceed.

Selecting and Proving the Remedy

You should begin with the property and the statutory ground. Attachment fits a debt claim with evidence of probable loss and one of Section 61.002's grounds. Garnishment fits a liquidated debt and property or obligations held by an identified garnishee. Sequestration fits a claim involving identified property and the danger or property dispute described in Section 62.001.

You should compare the expected recovery with the cost and risk of the writ. A writ can preserve the only source of recovery, but it also requires a bond, officer fees, immediate litigation, and a record strong enough to survive a prompt dissolution hearing. Freezing an operating account can disrupt payroll, vendors, and customer relationships, which increases both settlement pressure and potential damages if the writ fails.

You should seek prejudgment relief when admissible facts satisfy the statute and the property justifies the cost and risk. A precise application can preserve the recovery before judgment. A conclusory application can turn a collection case into a bond claim and an emergency mandamus proceeding.