Short answer. You must file a sworn affidavit of your title or right to possession, stating your grounds, and serve it on the sheriff and the attaching party. The sheriff is then free of the property unless the attaching party posts a court-approved bond, not less than its value, to indemnify you.
What the law says
If the property attached is claimed by any person other than the party against whom attachment had been issued or his agent, and such person makes an affidavit of his title thereto, or right to the possession thereof, stating the grounds of such right or title, and serves such affidavit upon the sheriff while the latter has possession of the attached property, and a copy thereof upon the attaching party, the sheriff shall not be bound to keep the property under attachment, unless the attaching party or his agent, on demand of the sheriff, shall file a bond approved by the court to indemnify the third-party claimant in a sum not less than the value of the property levied upon.
Rule 57, Section 14 — Proceedings where property claimed by third person. Read the full provision →
The third-party claim affidavit
Rule 57, Section 14 gives a stranger to the case — someone other than the defendant or the defendant's agent — a way to challenge an attachment over property they claim as their own. The claimant makes an affidavit of title or right to possession, stating the grounds for that claim, and serves it on the sheriff while the sheriff still holds the property, with a copy going to the attaching party.
The sheriff's default position shifts
Once that affidavit is served, the sheriff is no longer bound to keep the property under attachment. The only way the attaching party can keep the sheriff holding the property is to post a court-approved bond, in an amount not less than the value of the property levied upon, to indemnify the third-party claimant. Any disagreement over that value is decided by the court that issued the writ.
Time limits, sheriff protection, and abuse of the process
Damage claims against that indemnity bond must be filed within one hundred twenty days of the bond's filing, and the sheriff is not personally liable to the claimant once the bond is filed. The section also preserves the claimant's right to separately vindicate the claim to the property, and lets the attaching party pursue damages against a claimant who filed a frivolous or plainly spurious claim. A different, bond-free rule applies when the writ was issued in favor of the Republic of the Philippines.
Who this remedy does not cover
The affidavit route is only open to someone other than the defendant against whom the attachment was issued, or that defendant's own agent. A defendant who believes their own property was wrongly attached cannot use this third-party claim procedure; they have other remedies instead, such as moving to discharge the attachment directly or raising the issue on appeal. Section 14 is built to protect strangers to the suit whose property was mistakenly swept up in the sheriff's levy, not to give the defendant a shortcut around the attachment aimed at them.
Related provisions
- Rule 57, Section 14 — Proceedings where property claimed by third person
- Rule 57, Section 7 — Attachment of real and personal property; recording thereof
- Rule 57, Section 15 — Satisfaction of judgment out of property attached; return of sheriff