The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1885. THE ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS ACT.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2144, 13 November 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1885. THE ENFORCEMENT OF JUDGMENTS ACT.

Among the measures which found their way to the Statute Book Inst session is one entitled The Enforcement of Judgments Act, which provides that whenever any sum of money to the amount of twenty pounds or upwards shall have been recovered by the judgment of any District Court, or by the border or judgment of any Resident Magistrate's Court, the Clerk of such Court, upon the application of the judgment creditor, or of any person on his behalf, shall grant and deliver to the person making such application, a certificate in the form of the first schedule to the Act, and thereupon such person may at once sign final judgment in the Supreme Court in the form supplied in the second schedule for the sum mentioned in the certificate, together with interest at the rate of eight per cent, per annum from the day on which the original judgment was given, until the date of the said final judgment, and the fee payable .for the certificate. Upon such final judgment, execution may be forthwith issued, and all other remedies had thereon, in the same manner as in any judgment of the Supreme Court, No such certificate shall be

grunted before the time at which execution could be issued; and it' any execution shall have been issued aguinst the goods and chattels, no certificate shall be issued until after the return of the warrant of execution, and alter the issue of a certificate no further proceeding shall be taken in the lower court. To the lay reader who studies the Act this may appear to be just another contrivance for putting debtors to extra expense, We may, however, explain that the very reverse is the caso, Before the passing of the Act, a debtor who wished to take out an execution warrant could not seize real property, To do this lie had to enter a formal action in the Supreme Court, It would not be considered constitutional to give to Resident Magistrates or District Courts the power to deal with real estate, and a plan has therefore been devised by which the power of the Supreme Court can bo used by producing a certificate that a certain sum is owing. The machinery appears very simple, and the Act should prove a useful one.