Hong Kong Ordinances

FOREIGN JUDGMENTS (RECIPROCAL ENFORCEMENT) ORDINANCE - SECT 4

Application for, and effect of, registration of foreign judgments

(Past version on 30/06/1997).

Amendments retroactively made-see 25 of 1998 s. 2

(1) A person, being a judgment creditor under a judgment to which the
provisions of this Ordinance apply, may apply to the Court of First Instance
at any time within 6 years after the date of the judgment, or, where there
have been proceedings by way of appeal against the judgment, after the date of
the last judgment given in those proceedings, to have the judgment registered
in the Court of First Instance, and on any such application the court shall,
subject to proof of the prescribed matters and to the other provisions of this
Ordinance, order the judgment to be registered: (Amended 25 of 1998 s. 2)
Provided that a judgment shall not be registered if at the date of the
application-

   (a)  it has been wholly satisfied; or

   (b)  it could not be enforced by execution in the country of the 
        original court.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Ordinance with respect to the setting
aside of registration-

   (a)  a registered judgment shall, for the purposes of execution, be of the
        same force and effect; and

   (b)  proceedings may be taken on a registered judgment; and

   (c)  the sum for which a judgment is registered shall carry interest; and

   (d)  the registering court shall have the same control over the execution
        of a registered judgment, as if the judgment had been a judgment
        originally given in the registering  court and entered on the day of
        registration: Provided that the execution shall not issue on the
        judgment so long as, under the provisions of this Ordinance and any
        prescribed rules, it is competent for any party to make an application
        to have the registration of the judgment set aside, or, where such an
        application is made, until after the application has been finally
        determined.

(3) Where the sum payable under a judgment which is to be registered is
expressed in a currency other than the currency of the Colony, the judgment
shall be registered as if it were a judgment for such sum in the currency of
the Colony as, on the basis of the rate of exchange prevailing at the date of
registration, is equivalent to the sum so payable. (Amended 8 of 1981 s. 2)

(4) If at the date of the application for registration the judgment of the
original court has been partly satisfied, the judgment shall not be registered
in respect of the whole sum payable under the judgment of the original court,
but only in respect of the balance remaining payable at that date.

(5) If, on an application for the registration of a judgment, it appears to
the registering court that the judgment is in respect of different matters and
that some, but not all, of the provisions of the judgment are such that if
those provisions had been contained in separate judgments those judgments
could properly have been registered, the judgment may be registered in respect
of the provisions aforesaid but not in respect of any other provisions
contained therein.

(6) In addition to the sum of money payable under the judgment of the
original court, including any interest which by the law of the country 
of the original court becomes due under the judgment up to the time of
registration, the judgment shall be registered for the reasonable costs of and
incidental to registration, including the costs of obtaining a certified copy
of the judgment from the original court. [cf. 1933 c. 13 s. 2 U.K.]