1 PART I PRELIMINARY-1. Short title.

This Act may be cited as the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Act 1958 .

3 PART II REGISTRATION OF JUDGMENTS FROM RECIPROCATING COUNTRIES-3. Part II to extend to reciprocating countries.

(1) This Part shall extend to judgments given in the superior courts of reciprocating countries.

(2) The Yang di-Pertuan Agong may, if he is satisfied that in the event of the benefits conferred by this Part being extended to judgments given in the superior courts of any country or territory outside Malaysia, substantial reciprocity of treatment will be assured as respects the enforcement in that country or territory of judgments given in the High Court, by order extend this Part to that country or territory and may, by the same or a different order, amend the First Schedule to add that country or territory thereto and specify what courts of that country or territory shall be deemed to be superior courts for the purposes of this Part.

(3) Any judgment of a superior court, other than a judgment of such a court given on appeal from a court which is not a superior court, shall be a judgment to which this Part applies, if :

2 PART I PRELIMINARY-2. Interpretation.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires :   "action in personam "  shall not be deemed to include any matrimonial cause or any proceedings in connection with any matrimonial matters, administration of the estates of deceased persons, bankruptcy, winding up of companies, lunacy or guardianship of infants;   "appeal"  includes any proceeding by way of discharging or setting aside a judgment or an application for a new trial or a stay of execution;   "country of the original court"  means the reciprocating country in which the original court is situated;   "judgment"  means a judgment or order given or made by a court in any civil proceedings, or a judgment or order given or made by a court in any criminal proceedings for the payment of a sum of money in respect of compensation or damages to an injured party, and, except in relation to a country or territory outside the Commonwealth, includes an award in proceedings in an arbitration if the award has, pursuant t

4 PART II REGISTRATION OF JUDGMENTS FROM RECIPROCATING COUNTRIES-4. Application for and effect of registration of judgment.

(1) A person, being a judgment creditor under a judgment to which this Part applies, may apply to the High Court at any time within six 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 High Court, and on any such application the court shall, subject to proof of the prescribed matters and to the other provisions of this Act, order the judgment to be registered:

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 Act with respect to the setting aside of registration :

(a) a registered judgment shall

5 PART II REGISTRATION OF JUDGMENTS FROM RECIPROCATING COUNTRIES-5. Cases in which registered judgments must, or may, be set aside.

(1) On an application in that behalf duly made by any party against whom a registered judgment may be enforced, the registration of the judgment :

(a) shall be set aside if the registering court is satisfied :

(i) that the judgment is not a judgment to which this Part applies or was registered in contravention of this Act;

(ii) that the courts of the country of the original court had no jurisdiction in the circumstances of the case;

(iii) that the judgment debtor, being the defendant in the proceedings in the original court, did not (notwithstanding that process may have been duly served on him in accordance with the law of the country of the original court) receive notice of those proceedings in sufficient time to enable him to defend the proceedings and did not appear;

(iv) that the judgment was obtained by fraud;

(v) that the enforcement of the judgment would be contr

6 PART II REGISTRATION OF JUDGMENTS FROM RECIPROCATING COUNTRIES-6. Powers of registering court on application to set aside registration.

(1) If, on an application to set aside the registration of a judgment, the applicant satisfies the registering court either that an appeal is pending, or that he is entitled and intends to appeal, against the judgment, the court, if it thinks fit, may, on such terms as it may think just, either set aside the registration or adjourn the application to set aside the registration until after the expiration of such period as appears to the court to be reasonably sufficient to enable the applicant to take the necessary steps to have the appeal disposed of by the competent tribunal.

(2) Where the registration of a judgment is set aside under subsection (1), or solely for the reason that the judgment was not at the date of the application for registration enforceable by execution in the country of the original court, the setting aside of the registration shall not prejudice a further application to register the judgment when the appeal has been dispos

7 PART II REGISTRATION OF JUDGMENTS FROM RECIPROCATING COUNTRIES-7. Judgments which can be registered not to be enforceable otherwise.

No proceedings for the recovery of a sum payable under a judgment of a superior court, being a judgment to which this Part applies, other than proceedings by way of registration of the judgment, shall be entertained by any court in Malaysia.

8 PART III MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL-8. General effect of certain judgments.

(1) Subject to this section, a judgment to which Part II applies or would have applied if a sum of money had been payable thereunder, whether it can be registered or not, and whether, if it can be registered, it is registered or not, shall be recognized in any court in Malaysia as conclusive between the parties thereto in all proceedings founded on the same cause of action and may be relied on by way of defence or counterclaim in any such proceedings.

(2) This section shall not apply in the case of any judgment :

(a) where the judgment has been registered and the registration thereof has been set aside on some ground other than :

(i) that a sum of money was not payable under the judgment;

(ii) that the judgment had been wholly or partly satisfied; or

(iii) that at the date of the application the judgment could not be enforced by execution in the country of the original court; or

9 PART III MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL-9. Power to make judgments unenforceable in Malaysia if no reciprocity.

(1) If it appears to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong that the treatment in respect of recognition and enforcement accorded by the courts of any reciprocating country to judgments given in the High Court is substantially less favourable than that accorded by the courts in Malaysia to judgments of the superior courts of that country, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may by order apply this section to that reciprocating country and amend the First Schedule in any manner which may be necessary or expedient to give effect to the order and to remove any inconsistency therewith in the Schedule.

(2) Except so far as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may by order under this section otherwise direct, no proceedings shall be entertained in any court in Malaysia for the recovery of any sum alleged to be payable under a judgment given in a court of a reciprocating country to which this section applies.

10 PART III MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL-10. Issue of certificates of judgments obtained in Malaysia.

Where a judgment under which a sum of money is payable, not being a sum payable in respect of taxes or other charges of a like nature or in respect of a fine or other penalty, has been entered in the High Court against any person and the judgment creditor is desirous of enforcing the judgment in a reciprocating country to which Part II applies, the court shall, on an application made by the judgment creditor and on payment of such fee as may be prescribed issue to the judgment creditor a certified copy of the judgment, together with a certificate containing such particulars with respect to the action, including the causes of action, and the rate of interest, if any, payable on the sum payable under the judgment, as may be prescribed:

Provided that, where execution of a judgment is stayed for any period pending an appeal or for any other reason, an application shall not be made under this section with respect to the judgment until the expiration

11 PART III MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL-11. Rules of court.

(1) Subject to subsection (2) rules of court may be made for :

(a) making provision with respect to the giving of security for costs by persons applying for the registration of judgments;

(b) prescribing the matters to be proved on an application for the registration of a judgment and for regulating the mode of proving those matters;

(c) providing for the service on the judgment debtor of notice of the registration of a judgment;

(d) making provision with respect to the fixing of the period within which an application may be made to have the registration of the judgment set aside and with respect to the extension of the period so fixed;

(e) prescribing the method by which any question arising under this Act whether a judgment can be enforced by execution in the country of the original court, or what interest is payable under a judgment under the law of the

12 PART III MISCELLANEOUS AND GENERAL-12. Repeal and saving.

(1) The written laws specified in the Second Schedule are hereby repealed.

(2) Any judgment of a superior court in a reciprocating country registered in any court in Malaysia under any written law in force in any part of Malaysia before the first day of December 1972, shall be deemed to have been registered under this Act and to be enforceable accordingly, and anything done in relation to any such judgment under any such law or under any rules of court or other provisions applicable thereto shall be as valid and effectual as if it had been done under this Act or the corresponding rules of court or other provisions applicable to this Act.