DECEMBER 17 — In ‘Don’t play play with the bailiff’ I explained that the most usual method of enforcement of a judgment sum (JS) is by Writ of Seizure and Sale (WSS).

The enforcement comes about following the judgment debtor (JD)’s refusal to pay the JS to the judgment creditor (JC) under a court judgment or order.

The Official Portal of the Office of the Chief Registrar, Federal Court of Malaysia has useful information for the public, one of it is information on "What Do I Do With Court Order”.

It says as follows:

WHAT DO I DO WITH COURT ORDER?

• When you obtain a judgment against the opposing party, you are first required to serve the judgment.
• Upon receiving the judgment, the opposing party must obey the terms ordered against him/her by the Court.
• If the opposing party fails or refuses to comply with the order, our legal system provides several types of enforcement procedures.

It goes on to describe four modes of enforcement under the Rules of Court 2012 (ROC) – that is, judgment debtor summons (JDA), WSS, writ of possession (WP) and garnishee proceedings (GP).

Bankruptcy proceedings

Apart from the ROC, there are laws and rules that provide for specific mode or modes of enforcement. A good example is bankruptcy, which is a form of enforcement of judgment against a JD who owes a financial obligation to a JC who in turn has obtained a judgment or order.

Bankruptcy proceedings and its procedures are governed by the Insolvency Act 1967 and the Insolvency Rules 2017. The former sets out the substantive law of bankruptcy while the latter regulates the court procedure applicable to bankruptcy proceedings.

Bankruptcy is a proceeding by which possession of the property of a debtor, who is made a bankrupt, is taken for the benefit of his creditors, by the Director General of Insolvency (DGI), the property being realised and, subject to certain priorities, distributed rateably amongst those creditors – that is, the persons to whom the bankrupt owes money or has incurred pecuniary liability.

It is common for JCs, faced with JDs who are unable to meet their obligations to pay the JSs, to commence bankruptcy proceedings sometimes in tandem with other modes of enforcement.

Bankruptcy proceedings have always been, and no doubt will continue to be, a popular mode to seek enforcement of a JS, whether as a first or last resort.

As the information in the Official Portal of the Office of the Chief Registrar, Federal Court of Malaysia states, our legal system provides several types of enforcement procedures.

Subject to fulfilment of the requirements under the law, the procedures are available to any JC against any JD. As Federal Court Judge Raja Azlan Shah (as he then was) said in the case of Public Prosecutor v Datuk Haji Harun bin Haji Idris (No 2) [1977]:

"The law is no respecter of persons.”

All persons are equal before the law, and the courts apply the law equally to all.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.