On February 24, 2023, the Supreme People's Procuracy issued Documentary No. 606/VKSTC-V11 guiding difficulties and matters in the supervision and execution of civil and administrative judgments ("Documentary 606"). This Documentary provides some typical and notable guidelines on judgment enforcement, rights and obligations of parties related to civil judgment.
Judgement execution in case the movable property required registration has been "dispersed"
Matter of issue: What is the solution for cases where movable properties required registration (cars, motorcycles, ships, etc.) could not be recalled for realization because they were previously transferred in handwritten form or leased, borrowed, etc.?
Procuracy’s guidelines:
- All these properties must be prohibited from transferring, pledging, mortgaging, leasing or must subject to traffic restriction. The judgement execution agency shall send a written request to the competent state agency for suspension of registration, or transfer of ownership, use, or change of the current status. Therefore, the properties sold without registration, rent, borrowing, etc. are still eligible for judgement execution.
- Cases of ineligibility for execution only occur if the property is burnt, damaged, or no longer valid or usable without any replacable property.
What is a “plausible reason leading to the incapability of obligation self-performance” in grounds for postponement of judgment enforcement
Matter of issue: Article 48.1(a) of the Law on the Enforcement of Civil Judgments ("LECJ") stipulates that a case of postponement of judgment enforcement that the judgment debtor "cannot fulfill by himself/herself his/her obligation under the judgment or ruling for other plausible reasons". However, there is no instruction on what is a "plausible reason" in this case.
Procuracy’s guidelines:
- This basis is only applied to postpone judgment enforcement for moral obligations, instead of property obligations;
- It is possible to refer to the provisions on force majeure cases and objective obstacles in Article 4 of Decree 62/2015/ND-CP to determine "plausible reasons" for postponing the judgment enforcement, specifically:
+ Force majeure events are cases of natural disasters, fires, enemy disasters;
+ A hardship is a case where the litigant does not receive a judgment not because of their fault; the litigant is working in a bordering area or island and unable to request the enforcement on schedule; the litigant has an accident or disease that causes him/her to be lose his/her consciousness; the litigant dies without an inheritor; an organization undergoes amalgamation, merger, division, separation, dissolution or equitization without identifying another organization or individual entitled to request enforcement as prescribed by law or the litigant fails to request the enforcement before the deadline because of fault of the adjudicating authority, civil judgment enforcement authority, another organization or individual.
Temporary emergency measures shall be applicable even in days off or holiday leaves
Matter of issue: As per regulations, the enforcer must apply temporary emergency measures within 24 hours after receiving the Decision on judgement enforcement. However, whether they could be applicable if those 24 hours falls on days off or holiday leaves?
Procuracy’s guidelines:
A temporary emergency measure must be implemented immediately after the Court issues the decision and the implementation of the Court's decision to apply the temporary emergency measure does not exclude cases of days off or holiday leaves.
This stems from the fact that the application of temporary emergency measures is intended to address the urgent needs of litigants, protecting and collecting and preserving the existing state of evidence and assets, avoiding irreparable damage and ensuring the judment enforcement. Therefore, temporary emergency measures must be applied immediately. Any delay or prolongation is likely to cause great damage or may render implementation meaningless.
Documentary 606 takes effect from the date of issuance.
Comment: