2023 Massachusetts General Laws › Part III - Courts, Judicial Officers and Proceedings in Civil Cases › Title II - Actions and Proceedings Therein › Chapter 223 - Commencement of Actions, Service of Process › Section 125 - Bond to Pay Value of Property

Section 125. A defendant may, at any time before execution, issue upon a judgment, release from attachment the property attached, or such part thereof as he may elect, by giving bond to the plaintiff with sufficient sureties, who shall be approved by the plaintiff or by his attorney in writing, by a master in chancery, or by a justice of a court of record if the attachment is made within the jurisdiction of his court, conditioned to pay the plaintiff within the time during which the property so released might have been taken on execution pursuant to section fifty-nine of this chapter, the amount fixed as the value of the property so released, or so much of said amount as may be necessary to satisfy the amount, if any, which the plaintiff may recover, and the property so released shall be described in such bond. The defendant, or a person in his behalf, may make written application to any magistrate who is authorized to approve the sureties upon said bond in the county where the property is situated, stating the names of the parties to the action, the name of the officer who made the attachment, the names and residences of the proposed sureties, and, except in case the proposed surety is a surety company qualified to do business in the commonwealth, setting forth the property with which each of said sureties proposes to qualify, and in case said property, as so set forth, be realty, then giving the name of the city or town where the same is located. The magistrate shall forthwith cause a copy of the application, with notice of the time and place for the hearing, to be served upon the plaintiff, if he resides in the county, otherwise upon the officer who made the attachment; but the plaintiff or his attorney may in writing waive such notice or may approve the bond or sureties at any time, or may agree that the amount of the bond is sufficient without approving the sureties, in which case the appraisal hereinafter provided for need not be made. The notice shall be served twenty-four hours, at least, before the time appointed therein for a hearing and as much earlier as the magistrate may order. At the time and place appointed, after hearing the parties, the magistrate shall appoint three disinterested persons to examine and appraise the attached property described in the application, who shall be sworn, shall appraise the property at its fair market value and shall make return of their doings in writing to the magistrate at a time and place fixed by him to which the hearing shall be adjourned. At such adjourned hearing the defendant may give bond to the plaintiff, with sureties, who shall be approved by the magistrate as herein provided. Upon the filing of such bond, as is required by the provisions of section one hundred and twenty-three, the attachment upon the property described therein shall be dissolved. When successive attachments in favor of different plaintiffs are made upon personal property the defendant may release from the attachments the property attached, or such portion thereof as he may elect, by giving bond with sufficient sureties to be approved as hereinbefore provided. The sheriff of the county in which the first attachment was made shall be the obligee on the bond, which shall be deposited immediately after it is given with the clerk of the courts for the same county, except that in Suffolk county it shall be deposited with the clerk of the superior court for civil business. The bond shall be conditioned on the defendant's paying to such sheriff within the time fixed by this section for giving bond to release attached property from attachment, the amount fixed as the value of the property so released and the amount so paid shall be held by the sheriff, after deducting the necessary charges, subject to the attachments in the order in which they were made, and shall be disposed of in the same manner as the proceeds of attached personal property sold under section eighty-seven.