Originally from Attachment of Assets

Mexico

Attachment of Assets

1. What is the general nature and effect of judicial measures
available for plaintiffs to obtain provisional relief affecting
property of debtors to obtain security for judgments to be
obtained (“attachments”)? Freezing property in place? Placing
it in the custody of a third party, such as a court official, sheriff
or marshall?

Prejudgment seizure of assets is available, as a matter of course, in
summary debt collection proceedings (juicios ejecutivos mercantiles),
which are specifically devised to afford pre-trial security for the
collection of a debt which is unquestionably owed by the defendant, as
admitted in court or documented in negotiable instruments, certified
bank statements, insurance policies, final money judgments or arbitral
awards, or public deeds formalizing commercial agreements.

This provisional relief includes the attachment of bank accounts,
cash, movable goods, land, stock, securities, account receivables,
intellectual property rights and so forth. The property seized is
normally placed under the custody of a third party appointed by either
the plaintiff or the attaching court.

2. What is the form of the attachment? Injunction? Other kind of
judicial order? Specify.

The pre-trial remedy takes the form of a court order of attachment
which is personally served on the defendant by a court clerk, together
with the complaint. The defendant has the right to select on the spot the
goods to be seized. There is a statutory ranking to be successively
observed by the court clerk in carrying out the attachment of assets,
starting with commercial goods, followed by short-term account
receivables, movable goods, real estate, and other rights and interests
owed by the defendant.

3. What is the jurisdictional basis for an attachment? Is the
presence of the debtor’s property a sufficient basis for an
attachment to be obtained, assuming other requirements are