Execution on Real Property

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. Courts
  4. Courts of General Sessions
  5. General Provisions
  6. Execution on Real Property

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  1. Whenever any execution issued by a general sessions court is levied on real estate, and ten (10) days from date of the levy has expired, the title to real estate shall not be affected as to third parties until the execution or the papers in the cause are filed in the circuit court of the county in which the land lies.
  2. The officer making the levy shall, within ten (10) days thereafter, return the execution to the circuit court, where the cause will be at once docketed, and the officer will return the fact of the return of the execution to the circuit court to the general sessions court issuing the execution, whereupon the general sessions court shall file the remaining papers in the cause in the circuit court as required by subdivision (c)(1).
    1. When an execution issued by a general sessions court is levied on real estate, it shall be the duty of the general sessions court to whom the execution is returned to send the execution, together with the judgment and the papers in the cause, to the next circuit court of the general sessions court's county for condemnation.
    2. The circuit court, upon the return made pursuant to subdivision (c)(1), may condemn the land, and order the land, or so much of the land as it may see proper, to be sold by the sheriff of the county in satisfaction of the judgment and costs.
  4. If the circuit court condemns the land to be sold, the clerk shall enter on the minutes the warrant, attachment or other leading process, with the officer's return on the warrant, attachment or other leading process, the prosecution and other bonds where the condition has not been discharged, affidavits for attachment or other process, the judgment of the general sessions court, the execution levied with the officer's return and the judgment of the court.
  5. When several executions in favor of the same plaintiff are returned at the same term of the court, levied on the same tract of land, they shall all be included in one (1) judgment of condemnation, and only one (1) order of sale shall issue.
    1. The clerk of the circuit court may issue execution for the unsatisfied debt and costs, in all cases where a general sessions court's execution has been levied on land, and return made of the execution to the general sessions court, according to law, and the real estate executed fails, for any cause, to satisfy the judgment.
    2. Executions under subdivision (f)(1) may be issued to any county from which the plaintiff shall receive the same benefit, and the officer into whose hands it may come shall have the same authority to proceed as if the execution had issued from a general sessions court on a judgment rendered by it in the county to which the execution is directed.

Code 1858, §§ 3076, 3077, 3080-3083 (deriv. Acts 1786, ch. 14, § 10; Acts 1825, ch. 23, § 1; Acts 1825, ch. 66, § 1; Acts 1829, ch. 12, § 1; Acts 1835-1836, ch. 17, § 11; Acts 1839-1840, ch. 161, § 1); Acts 1899, ch. 39, §§ 1, 2; Shan., §§ 4804, 4805, 4808-4811; mod. Code 1932, §§ 8935, 8936, 8939-8945; impl. am. Acts 1979, ch. 68, §§ 2, 3; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), §§ 19-605 — 19-612; Acts 1993, ch. 241, § 53; T.C.A., §19-3-104.

Compiler's Notes. References in some of the annotations for this section to “justices of the peace” are deemed references to “courts of general sessions” or “judges of courts of general sessions.” See Acts 1979, ch. 68, §§ 2, 3.

Textbooks. Tennessee Jurisprudence, 3 Tenn. Juris., Attachment and Garnishment, §§ 31, 98, 110; 10 Tenn. Juris., Ejectment, § 9; 17 Tenn. Juris., Justices of Peace and General Sessions Courts, §§ 26, 32-36.

Law Reviews.

Enforcement of Judgments in Tennessee, 22 Tenn. L. Rev. 873.


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