Debtors and defendants move. The Act was drafted for a country of scattered stations and slow travel, and it gives two answers to the problem of a person who is no longer where the Court sat.
A warrant runs everywhere
A warrant issued by a Magistrate for compelling appearance, for apprehending a person charged, or of commitment, search or execution, may be executed in any part of the country. A warrant need not be returnable at a particular time but may remain in force until executed, and a warrant of execution or commitment may be executed from time to time until satisfaction is obtained.
So the simplest course is to take the warrant of execution issued at, say, Goroka to the police at Lae, where the debtor now lives. Section 274 requires every member of the Police Force to obey a magistrate’s warrant, and no endorsement by a Lae magistrate is needed. The difficulty is practical: the Goroka creditor must find the goods, arrange the police, and get the proceeds back to the Goroka Clerk under section 176. See executing a warrant anywhere.
The transfer of fine certificate
Where a decision requires the payment of a penalty, compensation, sum of money or costs and it appears that the person liable does not reside at or near the place where the decision was made, the Clerk at that place, if he considers that enforcement can more conveniently be performed at some other place appointed for holding court, may prepare and sign a transfer of fine certificate in duplicate and transmit it to the Clerk at that other place, together with the minute under section 160 and a copy of the minute if one has not been served on the person liable.
Despite its name, the certificate covers civil orders as well as fines: the section speaks of “a sum of money or costs” and the Magistrates’ Manual treats it as the procedure for delegating enforcement of any money decision. The decision to transfer is the Clerk’s, at the creditor’s request, and turns on convenience.
How the transfer works
| Step | Subsection |
|---|---|
| Originating Clerk signs the certificate in duplicate, stating the particulars of the minute, the enforcement acts already done and the amount still owing; the certificate is prima facie evidence of those facts | (1), (3) |
| Receiving Clerk signs the memorandum of receipt on the duplicate and returns it | (4) |
| From transmission, all enforcement acts are performed at the receiving place and not otherwise | (5) |
| If the minute was never served on the debtor, the receiving Clerk serves it with a notice that payment is now to be made to that Clerk | (7) |
| Receiving Clerk may transfer again, in triplicate, to a third place, copying the originating Clerk | (2) |
| Money received is transmitted without delay to, and accounted for by, the originating Clerk | (6) |
| Receiving Clerk reports the result of enforcement to the originating Clerk | (8) |
The Manual summarises: the original Court remains involved, receives an acknowledgment, must be told of every step and receives any money, and only one Court may engage in enforcement at a time.
What the receiving Court can do
Once the certificate is received, the receiving Court exercises the enforcement powers of Part IX as if the decision were its own: issuing a warrant of execution under section 173, taking an oral examination under section 181, attaching debts under section 182, or, for an unpaid fine, issuing a warrant of commitment under section 168 on the certificate under section 169. It does not rehear the merits; the certificate and the minute are the evidence of the decision and the balance.
Which route to use
A creditor who knows exactly where the goods are and can deal with the police directly may simply take the warrant. A creditor who needs the enforcement machinery of the other Court, an examination of the debtor, a garnishee of a local employer, or the local police acting on the local Clerk’s instructions, should ask for a section 166 transfer. For unpaid fines the transfer is the ordinary route, since the defendant must be found and either paid up or committed, and the local Court is best placed to do that.
Enforcement after an appeal
Section 11 provides that once an appeal has been decided against the appellant a magistrate may issue a warrant of execution or commitment as if no appeal had been brought, and section 236 gives any Court or magistrate authority to enforce a conviction or order affirmed, amended or made by the National Court on appeal. Costs of the appeal are enforced under section 235 on the Registrar’s certificate, by any magistrate to whom it is produced. The National Court’s own memorandum of decision is sent to the originating Clerk under section 233 for entry in the register.
Village Court orders
A Village Court order for a fine or for execution is enforced under the District Courts Act once a District Court magistrate has endorsed it, under sections 64 and 65 of the Village Courts Act as the Manual describes them, and the section 166 machinery is then available for it too. See the District Court and Village Courts.
The District Courts Act is not on PacLII; it is available on vLex.
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the District Courts Act (Chapter 40) and check for later amendments. The Act is not on PacLII; the figures and time limits quoted in this series come from the consolidation to No 8 of 2000, and the District Courts (Amendment) Act 2009 changes some of them once it is brought into operation. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.