When goods are distrained or attached for rent reserved in a share of the crop, or in anything other than money, the claimant of the rent having given the tenant ten days’ notice, or, if he be out of the county, having set up the notice in some conspicuous place on the premises, may apply to the court to which the attachment is returnable, or the circuit court of the county or the corporation court of the corporation in which the distress is made, to ascertain the value in money of the rent reserved, and to order a sale of the goods distrained or attached. The tenant may make the same defenses that he could to a motion on a forfeited forthcoming bond given for rent and may also contest the value of what was reserved for the rent. The court shall ascertain, either by its own judgment, or, if either party require it, by the verdict of a jury impaneled without the formality of pleading, the extent of the liability of the tenant for rent, and the value in money of such rent, and if the tenant has been served with notice shall enter judgment against him for the amount so ascertained. It shall also order the goods distrained or attached, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be sold to pay the amount so ascertained. The officer charged with the execution of such warrant or attachment shall make return thereof to the clerk’s office of the court, showing how he has executed the same. If the goods so directed to be sold prove insufficient to pay the amount of the rent so ascertained, an execution may be issued on the judgment as in case of other judgments, which may be levied on such property as would be leviable under an execution issued on a judgment in an action brought to recover the rent.

History

Code 1919, § 5529.