Prejudgment Attachment Survives Homestead

In Walsh v. Yarossi, the Land Court decided earlier this month that an attachment obtained before a homestead declaration was filed negates the homestead protection, even when the judgment was not obtained until years after the homestead. Although the defendants argued that a prejudgment attachment was not a debt, but "only a claim for such debt," the court held that "G.L. c. 223 makes the status of the Attachment as a lien clear, as well as the fact that a judgment relates back to the date of the Attachment. " For more about homestead protection, see Mass. Law About Homestead.