Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) (Amendment) Act 1988 (ACT)

AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) (Amendment) Ordinance 1988

No. 24 of 1988

I, THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, hereby make the following Ordinance under the Seat of Government (Administration) Act 1910.

Dated 25 May 1988.

N. M. STEPHEN

Governor-General

By His Excellency’s Command,

MICHAEL TATE

Minister of State for Justice for and on behalf of the
Attorney-General

An Ordinance to amend the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Ordinance 1954

Short title

1.  This Ordinance may be cited as the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) (Amendment) Ordinance 1988.1

Principal Ordinance

2.  In this Ordinance, “Principal Ordinance” means the Foreign Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Ordinance 1954.2

Registered judgments—setting aside

3.  Section 8 of the Principal Ordinance is amended—

(a)by omitting subparagraph (2) (a) (i) and substituting the following subparagraph:

“(i)if the judgment debtor voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction of the original court;”; and

(b)by adding at the end the following subsection:

“(4)  For the purposes of subparagraph (2) (a) (i), a person does not voluntarily submit to the jurisdiction of a court by—

(a)entering an appearance in proceedings in the court; or

(b)participating in proceedings in the court only to such extent as is necessary;

for the purpose only of one or more of the following:

(c)protecting, or obtaining the release of—

(i)property seized, or threatened with seizure, in the proceedings; or

(ii)property subject to an order restraining its disposition or disposal;

(d)contesting the jurisdiction of the court;

(e)inviting the court in its discretion not to exercise its jurisdiction in the proceedings.”.

Insertion

4.  Before section 11 of the Principal Ordinance the following section is inserted in Part III:

Judgments to which Part II does not apply

“10A.  For the purpose of proceedings brought in the Territory for the recovery of a sum payable under a judgment given in an action in personam by a court of a Commonwealth country or a foreign country, not being a judgment to which Part II applies, the court shall not be taken to have had jurisdiction to give the judgment by reason only that the judgment debtor—

(a)entered an appearance in proceedings in the court; or

(b)participated in proceedings in the court only to such extent as was necessary;

for the purpose only of one or more of the following:

(c)protecting, or obtaining the release of—

(i)property seized, or threatened with seizure, in the proceedings; or

(ii)property subject to an order restraining its disposition or disposal;

(d)contesting the jurisdiction of the court;

(e)inviting the court in its discretion not to exercise its jurisdiction in the proceedings.”.

Judgments unenforceable if no reciprocity

5.  Section 12 of the Principal Ordinance is amended by omitting from subsection (1) “or” and substituting “to”.

NOTES

1. Notified in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette on 8 June 1988.

2. No. 11, 1954 as amended by No. 65, 1977; No. 36, 1982.