Through this article, BLawyers Vietnam would like to present 04 notes on the statute of limitations for requesting the enforcement of civil judgments or decisions of the foreign Court and awards of the foreign Arbitration (“Statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement”).
1. Determination of the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement
The statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement means a time limit during which a creditor or an obliger has the right to request the competent authority to proceed with judgment enforcement in accordance with the law.
In principle, the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement shall be a term within 05 years from the effective date of the judgment or the decision, except for some following cases:
- If the time limit for performing the obligation is prescribed under the judgment or the decision, the time limit of 05 years shall start from the due date of the obligation.
- If the judgment or the decision is subject to periodical enforcement, the time limit of 05 years shall apply to each period and shall start from the due date of the obligation.
2. Periods that do not comprise the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement
The provisions of law allow certain periods that do not make up of the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement, including the following cases:
I. The judgment enforcement is postponed or suspended under the circumstances as prescribed by law.
However, if the creditor approves to enable the obliger to postpone judgment enforcement for a certain period, this period shall still be counted into the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement.
ii. The party requesting judgment enforcement manages to prove that their belated request for judgment enforcement is due to the event of objective hindrance or force majeure as prescribed by law.
In particular,
- Force majeure shall be natural disasters, fire, enemy-inflicted destruction;
- Objective hindrances shall include the situations such as:
- A litigant do not receive the judgment or decision without the fault of his/her/its own;
- A litigant is on a business trip in the border areas or islands so that he/she/it is unable to request judgment enforcement punctually;
- There has been an accident or serious disease occurring to a litigant that made this individual lose consciousness, or a litigant passed away without any heirs identified;
- A litigant that is an organization consolidates, merges, divides, separates, dissolves, transforms form, compulsory transfer, transfers all the shares and contributed capital without any organizations or individuals identified to have the right to request judgment enforcement in accordance with law; or
- Due to the fault of the dispute settlement body, the enforcement authority of civil judgment enforcement, or other relevant authorities and individuals, the litigants can not request judgment enforcement punctually.
3. Legal consequences for the expiry of the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement
When the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement expires, the competent authority of civil judgment enforcement shall refuse the request for judgment enforcement and make written notification to the requesting party within 05 working days from the date of receiving the request.
4. Resumption of the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement
One of the solutions for litigants to consider is that, if there has occurred an event of force majeure or objective hindrance during the time of statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement, the party requesting judgment enforcement can apply for the procedure of requesting the overdue judgment enforcement. However, resumption of the statute of limitations for requesting judgment enforcement shall be subject to a case-by-case basis and depend on the specific documents.
