Court Rules

I. General 

1. Where any person is by any judgment or order directed to pay any money, or to deliver up or transfer any property real or personal to another, it shall not be necessary to make any demand thereof, but the person so directed shall be bound to obey such judgment or order upon being duly served with the same without demand.

2. Where any person who has obtained any judgment or order upon condition does not perform or comply with such condition he shall be considered to have waived or abandoned such judgment or order so far as the same is beneficial to himself, and any other person interested in the matter may on breach or non-performance of the condition take either such proceedings as the judgment or order may in such case warrant, or such proceedings as might have been taken if no such judgment or order had been given or made, unless the Court shall otherwise direct.

3. A judgment for the recovery by or payment to any person of money may be enforced by execution order or by any other mode authorised by these Rules or by law.

4. A judgment for the payment of money into Court may be enforced by an order of sequestration, or, in cases in which attachment is authorised by law, by attachment.

5. A judgment for the recovery or for the delivery of the possession of land may be enforced by order of possession.

6. A judgment for the recovery of any property other than land or money may be enforced:

(a) by order for delivery of the property;

(b) by order of attachment;

(c) by order of sequestration.

7. A judgment requiring any person to do any act other than the payment of money, or to abstain from doing anything, may be enforced by order of attachment or by committal.

8. In these Rules the term “execution order” shall include orders of fieri facias, sequestration and attachment and all subsequent orders that may issue for giving effect thereto.  The term “issuing execution against any party” shall mean the issuing of any such process against his person or property as under the preceding rules of this Order shall be applicable to the case.

9. Where a judgment or order is to the effect that any party is entitled to any relief subject to or upon the fulfilment of any condition or contingency, the party so entitled may, upon the fulfilment of the condition or contingency, and demand made upon the party against whom he is entitled to relief, apply to the Court for leave to issue execution against such party.  And the Court may, if satisfied that the right to relief has arisen according to the terms of the judgment or order, order that execution issue accordingly, or may direct that any issue or question necessary for the determination of the rights of the parties be tried in any of the ways in which questions arising in an action may be tried.

10. No execution order shall be issued without the production to the officer by whom the same should be issued of the judgment or order upon which the execution order is to issue, or an attested copy thereof, showing the date of entry, and in the case of a judgment or order for the payment of money, a certificate signed by the party or his solicitor, containing such sum as the party demands to be due to him after all just and equitable deductions, which certificate shall be filed in the Central Office, and the sum mentioned therein entered in the body of the said execution order as the sum to be levied on foot of the sum adjudged by the judgment or order.  The officer shall be satisfied that the proper time has elapsed to entitle the creditor to execution.

11. No execution order shall be issued without the party issuing it, or his solicitor, filing a praecipe for that purpose.  The praecipe shall contain the title of the cause or matter, the reference to the record, the date of judgment, and of the order, if any, directing the execution to be issued, the names of the parties against whom, or of the firm against whose goods, the execution is to be issued; and shall be signed by or on behalf of the solicitor of the party issuing it, of by the party issuing it if he do so in person.  The forms in Appendix F, Part I, shall be used.

12. Every execution order shall be indorsed with the name and registered place of business of the solicitor issuing the same, and in case no solicitor shall be employed to issue the order, then it shall be indorsed with a memorandum expressing that same has been issued by the party in person and giving his full address.

13. Every execution order shall bear date of the day on which it is issued, and shall be authenticated in the same manner as an originating summons.  The forms in Appendix F, Part II, shall be used.

14. In every case of execution the party entitled to execution may levy the poundage, fees, and expenses of execution over and above the sum recovered.

15. Every execution order for the recovery of money shall be indorsed with a direction to the proper officer to levy the money sought to be recovered under the judgment or order, stating the amount, and also to levy interest thereon, if sought to be recovered, at the rate of eleven per cent. per annum or such rate as may be substituted by virtue of section 20 of the Courts Act 1981, from the time when the judgment or order was entered or made, unless the judgment otherwise directs.

16. The address and description of the party against whom any execution order shall issue or such other description of him as the solicitor for the party issuing same may be able to give shall be indorsed on such order, but the party against whom such order shall issue shall not be allowed to take advantage of the want of such indorsement, and it shall not be necessary to state the place of abode or addition of either party in the body of such order.

17. Every person to whom any sum of money or any costs shall be payable under a judgment or order shall, so soon as the money or costs shall be payable, be entitled to sue out one or more order or orders of fieri facias to enforce payment thereof, subject nevertheless as follows:

(i)   if the judgment or order is for payment within a period therein mentioned, no such order as aforesaid shall be issued until after the expiration of such period;

(ii)  the Court may, at or after the time of giving judgment or making an order, stay execution until such time as it shall think fit.

18. Upon any judgment or order for the recovery or payment of a sum of money and costs, there may be, at the election of the party entitled thereto, either one order or separate orders of execution for the recovery of the sum, and for the recovery of the costs, but a second order shall only be for costs, and shall be issued not less than eight days after the first order.  Provided that, if, in any proceedings brought by a moneylender or the personal representative or an assignee of a moneylender for the recovery of money lent by the moneylender or any interest thereon or the enforcement of any agreement or security relating to any such money or interest, judgment has been entered for the plaintiff by virtue of a warrant of attorney, and such judgment has been entered after the expiration of twelve months from the date of such warrant of attorney, no execution order shall issue without an order of the Court to be obtained on motion.

19. A party who has obtained judgment or an order, not being for payment of money or costs, or for the recovery of land, may issue execution in fourteen days unless the Court shall order execution to issue at an earlier or later date with or without terms.

20. An execution order or an order of committal, if unexecuted, shall remain in force for one year only from its issue, unless renewed in the manner hereinafter provided; but such order may, at any time before its expiration, by leave of the Court, be renewed by the party issuing it for one year from the date of such renewal and so on from time to time during the continuance of the renewed order, either by being marked with the seal of the High Court, bearing the date of the day, month and year of such renewal, or by such party giving a written notice of renewal to the sheriff, signed by the party or his solicitor, and bearing the like seal; and an execution order so renewed shall have effect, and be entitled to priority, according to the time of the original delivery thereof.

21. Where it shall appear to be just that an order of possession should be re-executed, the same may, at any time after its execution, be renewed by leave of the Court for one year from the date of such renewal by being marked, or by the giving of the notice, as in rule 20 mentioned.

22. The production of an execution order, or of the notice renewing same, purporting to be marked with such seal as in rules 20 and 21 mentioned, showing the same to have been renewed, shall be sufficient evidence of its having been so renewed.

23. As between the original parties to a judgment or order, execution may issue at any time within six years from the recovery of the judgment, or the date of the order.

24. In the following cases, viz.:

(a)  where six years have elapsed since the judgment or order, or any change has taken place by death or otherwise in the parties entitled or liable to execution;

(b)  where a party is entitled to execution upon a judgment of assets in futuro;

(c)  where a party is entitled to execution against any of the shareholders of a company upon a judgment recorded against such company, or against a public officer or other person representing such company; the party alleging himself to be entitled to execution may apply to the Court for leave to issue execution accordingly.  The Court may, if satisfied that the party so applying is entitled to issue execution, make an order to that effect, or may order that any issue or question necessary to determine the rights of the parties shall be tried in any of the ways in which any question in an action may be tried: and in either case the Court may impose such terms as to costs or otherwise as shall be just.  Provided always that in case of default of payment of any sum of money at the time appointed for payment thereof by any judgment or order made in a matrimonial cause or matter, an order of fieri facias may be issued as of course upon an affidavit of service of the judgment or order and non-payment.

25. Every order of the Court in any cause or matter may be enforced against all persons bound thereby in the same manner as a judgment to the same effect.

26. An order of committal under the Debtors Act (Ireland) 1872 (35 & 36 Vic., c. 57), shall bear date on the day on which such order was made, and shall continue in force for one year from such date and no longer; but it may be renewed in the manner provided for execution orders by rule 20.

27. Any person not being a party to a cause or matter, who obtains any order, or in whose favour any order is made, shall be entitled to enforce obedience to such order by the same process as if he were a party to such cause or matter; and any person not being a party to a cause or matter, against whom obedience to any judgment or order may be enforced, shall be liable to the same process for enforcing obedience to such judgment or order as if he were a party to such cause or matter.

28. Any party against whom judgment has been given may apply to the Court for a stay of execution or other relief against such judgment, upon the ground of facts which have arisen too late to be pleaded; and the Court may give such relief and upon such terms as may be just.

29. Nothing in this Order shall take away or curtail any right heretofore existing to enforce or give effect to any judgment or order in any manner, or against any person or property whatsoever.

30. Nothing in this Order shall affect the order in which execution orders may be issued.

31. If a mandamus, granted in an action or otherwise, or a mandatory order, injunction, or judgment for the specific performance of any contract be not complied with, the Court, besides or instead of proceedings against the disobedient party for contempt, may direct that the act required to be done may be done so far as practicable by the party by whom the judgment or order has been obtained, or some other person appointed by the Court, at the cost of the disobedient party, and upon the act being done, the expenses incurred may be ascertained in such manner as the Court may direct, and execution may issue for the amount so ascertained, and costs.

32. Any judgment or order against a company wilfully disobeyed may, by leave of the Court, be enforced by sequestration against the corporate property, or by attachment against the directors or other officers thereof, or by order of sequestration against their property.

33. An award may, with the leave of the Court, and on such terms as may be just, be enforced at any time, though the time for moving to set it aside has not elapsed.

34. Where an order of fieri facias has been sent out directed to the sheriff of one county, the person entitled to issue execution may sue out another order of fieri facias directed to the sheriff of a different county without requiring or waiting for a return to the first order and notwithstanding any seizure or partial levy under the first order, provided that no more than the whole of the money and costs due to the person suing out the orders shall be levied thereunder.

35. The orders provided for in this Order shall be orders of the Court and shall issue out of the Central Office.  They shall be in lieu of the former writs of fieri facias, venditioni exponas, possession, delivery, attachment, sequestration and writs of execution generally, and shall be as effectual in every way as the said respective writs and all statutes and enactments relating to such respective writs shall apply mutatis mutandis to the orders of the Court hereby substituted therefor.

35A.^[1] A person seeking to issue execution consequent on a right arising from a judgment or order of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal shall first lodge in the Central Office an attested copy of the judgment or order of the Supreme Court or the Court of Appeal arising from which such right arises.

II. Discovery in aid of execution and in proceedings under the Debtors Act (Ireland) 1872 

36. When a judgment or order is for the recovery or payment of money, the party entitled to enforce it may apply to the Court for an order that the debtor liable under such judgment or order, or in the case of a corporation that any officer thereof, or that any other person be orally examined as to whether any and what debts are owing to the debtor, and whether the debtor has any and what other property or means of satisfying the judgment or order, before a judge or an officer of the Court as the Court shall appoint; and the Court may make an order for the attendance and the examination of such debtor, or of any other person, and for the production of any books or documents.

37. In case of any judgment or order other than for the recovery or payment of money, if any difficulty shall arise in or about the execution or enforcement thereof, any party interested may apply to the Court, and the Court may make such order thereon for the attendance and examination of any party or otherwise, as may be just.

38. The costs of any application under rules 36 and 37 or either of them and of any proceedings arising from or incidental thereto shall be in the discretion of the Court.

39. Nothing in this Order shall effect any of the provisions contained in the Enforcement of Court Orders Acts 1926 and 1940.