§ 8.01-114.When property to be taken by officer; summary of evidence, affidavits and report to be filed.

Section 8.01-114 opens Virginia’s detinue article by giving a plaintiff two paths to recover personal property someone else is unlawfully withholding. The plaintiff can bring an ordinary detinue proceeding by warrant or motion for judgment, without asking for pretrial seizure at all. Or the plaintiff can file a petition seeking pretrial seizure, either to start the detinue proceeding from scratch or during a proceeding already underway on a warrant or motion for judgment.

A petition seeking seizure has to do three things: describe the kind, quantity, and estimated fair market value of the specific property sought; describe the basis of the plaintiff’s claim with enough detail to give the defendant real notice of what is being claimed, including the amount due if the claim rests on a contract securing payment of money; and allege one or more statutory grounds for seizure, backed by specific supporting facts. If the petition does that, a judge, or a magistrate, can order the sheriff or another proper officer to seize the property, or a specified part of it, and deliver it to the plaintiff pending the outcome of the case.

The judge or magistrate can only issue that seizure order after an ex parte review, and only on finding that the petition conforms to these requirements and that reasonable cause supports the grounds alleged. The plaintiff has to pay the costs, fees, and taxes when filing the petition, or the order does not issue. The judge or magistrate can consider only the sworn petition itself as evidence, filed with the case papers. And the seizure order must go out together with the form for requesting a hearing on a claimed exemption from seizure, following the issuance, return, and service procedures the statute specifies, on any day including weekends and holidays.