James W. Bennett and Alicia Bennett v. Ottie Adkins, Sheriff of Cabell County, No. 22360 (W. Va. July 17, 1995) (Fox, J.): 194 W.Va. 372, 460 S.E.2d 507:
Affirming an order directing the sheriff's return of property seized pursuant to a writ of execution, but reversing the failure to award attorney fees and costs, the Court held (1) a judgment debtor may claim an exemption at any time before the sale of property seized under a writ of execution; (2) following the filing of a judgment debtor's affidavit of exemption, the judgment creditor has five days to file a demand for appraisement of the allegedly exempt property; (3) if the judgment creditor does not file the appraisement demand within five days of the affidavit of exemption, the sheriff or other officer in control of the allegedly exempt property has a mandatory duty to release the property for return to the judgment debtor; (4) if a judgment debtor properly exempts property from execution, all costs incident to the seizure shall be paid from the judgment creditor's bond required by W. Va. Code § 38-6-1; and (5) the return of exempted property cannot be conditioned on requiring the judgment debtor to pay fees attendant to the seizure.