2014 Tennessee Code
Title 29 - Remedies and Special Proceedings
Chapter 30 - Recovery of Personal Property
Part 1 - Action to Recover Personal Property
§ 29-30-104 - Filing of action -- Process -- Possessory hearing -- Procedure -- Forms.

(a) The action to recover personal property shall be filed with the clerk and process shall issue. The process shall show on its face that a possessory hearing will be held on a date and a time specified before the judge or chancellor of the court where the action is filed.

(b) The purpose of the possessory hearing is to protect the defendant's use and possession of the property from arbitrary or mistaken deprivation. If the judge shall, after conducting the possessory hearing, find that the plaintiff's claim for immediate possession should be sustained, the judge shall issue a writ of possession.

(c) The possessory hearing shall be held in not less than five (5) nor more than twenty (20) days after the process is served upon the defendant; provided, failure to do so within the time period shall not be grounds for dismissal.

(d) The process shall notify the defendant that if the defendant fails to appear and offer evidence, the court shall issue the writ of possession, and in actions filed in courts of general sessions, the process shall also notify the defendant that if the defendant fails to appear and offer evidence, the judge shall enter a default judgment for the relief sought in the warrant.

(e) Whether or not the claim for immediate possession is allowed at a possessory hearing the action commenced hereunder shall be tried in all respects as other actions are tried in the particular court in which it is filed.

(f) The process in general sessions court shall have attached or annexed to it a blank form for the use of the court in entering its judgment and a blank form for the use of the defendant or defendants in waiving a hearing, all of which shall be in substantially the following form:

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If the action to recover personal property is an action to satisfy a lien on a motor vehicle for repayment of a loan, the process in general sessions court shall also have attached or annexed to it a blank inventory from which shall be in substantially the following form:

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(g) No objection shall be made as to the form of process if the essential matters of this section are set forth in the process.

(h) The process in all other courts shall have attached or annexed to it a blank form for the use of the defendant or defendants in waiving a hearing, all of which shall be in substantially the following form:

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