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18 1926

ENFORCEMENT OF COURT ORDERS ACT, 1926

PART I.

Functions and Powers of the Under-Sheriff.

Execution of execution orders.

3. —(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and of rules of court made under the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 (No. 10 of 1924), all execution orders of the High Court shall be executed by the under-sheriff in the like manner and with the like powers, rights and authorities and subject to the like duties and obligations as similar writs of execution of the High Court have heretofore been executed by the under-sheriff.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act and of rules of court made under the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , all execution orders of the Circuit Court and (save as is hereinafter otherwise provided) of the District Court shall be executed by the under-sheriff in the like manner and with the like powers, rights and authorities and subject to the like duties and obligations as similar writs of execution of the High Court have heretofore been executed by the under-sheriff.

(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of the foregoing sub-section or of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , execution orders of the District Court in cases which would before the 6th day of December, 1922, have been within the jurisdiction of Justices of the Peace sitting at Petty Sessions or of a Divisional Justice of the Police District of Dublin Metropolis (other than ejectment cases, and proceedings for the recovery of rates exceeding five pounds) shall be executed by the Gárda Síochána in like manner in all respects as such execution orders were executed by the Gárda Síochána and the Dublin Metropolitan Police respectively before the commencement of Part III of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 .

(4) No statutory provision or rule of court which was in force immediately before the commencement of Part II of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , in relation to the execution of decrees or orders (whether for debt, possession of lands, or otherwise) of a Civil Bill Court shall apply to the execution of execution orders of the Circuit Court.

(5) Any judgment of the Circuit Court which is registrable by virtue of section 59 of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , in the Central Office of the High Court shall be and shall be deemed always to have been, when so registered, registrable as a judgment mortgage if and so far as such judgment if it had been a judgment of the High Court would have been so registrable, but save as aforesaid no judgment of the Circuit Court shall be registrable as a judgment-mortgage.

(6) For the purpose of giving effect to the foregoing sub-section but no further or otherwise, every reference contained in section 6 of the Judgment Mortgage (Ireland) Act, 1850, to Her Majesty's Superior Courts at Dublin shall be construed as including a reference to the Circuit Court whether sitting at Dublin or elsewhere, and the Circuit Court shall be a superior Court within the meaning of the said section 6, and that section shall have effect accordingly.

(7) No statutory provision or rule of court which was in force immediately before the commencement of Part III of the Courts of Justice Act, 1924 , in relation to the execution of decrees or orders of District Justices or of Divisional Justices of the Police District of Dublin Metropolis shall apply to the execution of execution orders of the District Court which under this section are to be executed by the under-sheriff, but nothing in this section shall be construed as enabling any judgment, decree or order of the District Court to be registered as a judgment-mortgage.

Court messengers.

4. —(1) Every under-sheriff shall, subject to the approval of the Minister, appoint such number of persons (who shall be styled and are hereinafter referred to as court messengers) as the Minister shall sanction to act for him and otherwise assist him in the execution of execution orders under this Act.

(2) Any court messenger may if the Minister so directs and the Minister for Finance so consents, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas such salary as the Minister, with the sanction of the Minister for Finance, shall determine.

(3) Every court messenger shall hold his office at the will of the Minister and may be removed from office by the Minister at the request of the under-sheriff or on his own motion.

(4) Every under-sheriff shall cause a correct list of the names and places of residence of the persons for the time being holding the office of court messenger in his bailiwick to be kept posted in his office and in every court-house in his bailiwick.

Issue of warrants to court messengers.

5. —(1) Every court messenger when assisting the under-sheriff in the execution of an execution order or when executing an execution order for an under-sheriff shall be furnished by the under-sheriff with a warrant in writing signed by the under-sheriff and authorising the court messenger by name to execute or assist in the execution of that particular execution order, and no court messenger shall execute or take part in the execution of any execution order unless duly authorised so to do by such warrant as aforesaid.

(2) It shall be the duty of every court messenger executing or assisting in the execution of an execution order, at any time after entering on any lands or premises under such execution order and before removing therefrom any property, to produce on demand to the person in apparent possession of such lands or premises the warrant issued to him under this section by the under-sheriff.

(3) A court messenger executing or assisting in the execution of an execution order in pursuance of a warrant duly issued to him under this section shall have all the powers which would be vested by law in a bailiff employed by an under-sheriff for that purpose.

(4) A warrant issued by an under-sheriff under this section shall not lapse or be prejudiced by reason of such under-sheriff ceasing to hold office but every such warrant shall lapse and terminate on the court messenger named therein ceasing to hold office.

Inventory of chattels seized.

6. —It shall be the duty of every under-sheriff under whose authority execution shall be levied upon goods, animals, or other chattels, to cause an itemised inventory of the chattels seized to be made out and within twenty-four hours of seizure and, if practicable, before any removal to cause to be furnished to the defendant (or other the person in apparent possession of such chattels) a duplicate of such inventory, signed by the under-sheriff or by a court messenger acting on his behalf.

Certain chattels exempt from seizure.

7. —The necessary wearing apparel and bedding of a person against whom an execution shall be levied, and the necessary wearing apparel and bedding of his family, and the tools and implements of his trade, not exceeding in the whole the value of fifteen pounds, shall be exempt from liability to seizure.

Under-sheriff may sell at any time.

8. —It shall be lawful for any under-sheriff who takes any goods, animals, or other chattels in execution under an execution order to sell by public auction such goods, animals, or other chattels at any time after the expiration of a period of forty-eight hours after he shall have taken the same in execution, but so that he shall not allow any unreasonable delay to occur, and it shall not be necessary for the under-sheriff to publish or announce that any such sale is a sale by an under-sheriff or is a sale of goods, animals, or chattels taken in execution.

Under-sheriff may sell outside his bailiwick.

9. —(1) Any under-sheriff who takes goods, animals, or other chattels in execution under any execution order may sell such goods, animals and chattels by public auction at such place or places, whether within or outside his bailiwick, in which in his opinion such goods, animals and chattels can be sold to the best advantage, and may remove such goods, animals, and chattels or any of them or cause same to be removed from the place where same were seized to such place or places of sale.

(2) All goods, animals, and other chattels taken in execution by an under-sheriff under any execution order may pending the sale thereof be impounded, stored and kept by the under-sheriff in such place or places as he shall think fit, and notwithstanding that such place or places is or are not appointed or authorised by law to be used as pounds.

(3) The under-sheriff shall be sole judge of the place or places at which any goods, animals, or other chattels taken in execution by him can be sold to the best advantage and no action shall lie against any under-sheriff on account of his having sold any such goods, animals, or chattels as aforesaid outside his bailiwick.

Validity of purchases from under-sheriff.

10. —Every person who purchases in good faith at a sale held by or under the authority of an under-sheriff any goods, animals, or other chattels taken in execution by such under-sheriff shall acquire a good title valid against all persons to the goods, animals, and chattels so purchased notwithstanding any invalidity or irregularity in or about the seizure or sale of such goods, animals, or chattels, and whether he knows or ought to or could have known or is affected with any kind of notice that the sale is a sale by or under the authority of an under-sheriff or not.

Interruption of under-sheriff's custody not to prejudice sale.

11. —The power and authority of an under-sheriff to sell any goods, animals, or other chattels taken in execution by him shall not be prejudiced or affected by reason of such goods, animals, or chattels having been out of the custody of the under-sheriff or his custody thereof having been by any means interrupted at any time or times between the time of the seizure and the time of the actual sale of such goods, animals, or chattels.

No action to lie against under-sheriff for entering or breaking premises.

12. —(1) No action shall lie against an under-sheriff who has complied with the conditions hereinafter stated for or on account of his having entered or broken into any lands, house, close, or other premises for the purpose of taking in execution any goods, animals, or other chattels which were or might be on or in such lands, house, close, or premises, or for or on account of any injury occasioned to such lands, house, or premises by or in the course of such entry or breaking in.

(2) The conditions hereinbefore mentioned are:—

(a) that before breaking into any dwellinghouse or other building the under-sheriff shall make reasonable efforts to enter peaceably and without violence, and

(b) where the under-sheriff breaks and enters the premises of a person other than the person against whom he has been called upon to enforce an execution order, he shall either have had reasonable grounds for believing that there were some goods, animals, or chattels of such last-mentioned person in such premises or he shall actually find some such goods, animals, or chattels in such premises.

Under-sheriff not liable for seizing goods claimed by wife, etc., of debtor.

13. —(1) No action shall lie against any under-sheriff for or on account of his having taken in execution under any execution order, any goods, animals, or other chattels found in the house or tenement of which the debtor is the occupier either alone or jointly with another or others or on the lands, of the debtor and claimed or alleged (whether such claim or allegation does or does not prove to have been well-founded), to be the property of the wife or husband of the debtor, or to be the property of any parent or child of the debtor for the time being residing in the house or tenement of which the debtor is the occupier either alone or jointly with another or others, and, in lieu of such action against the under-sheriff, the person to whom such goods, animals, or other chattels so taken in execution in fact belonged shall (if such goods, animals, or other chattels, should prove not to have been the property of the debtor) be entitled to recover from the debtor by action the value of such goods, animals, and other chattels, together with such damages as such person shall have suffered by reason of such goods, animals, or other chattels having been so taken in execution.

(2) The foregoing sub-section shall not operate to make it obligatory on any under-sheriff to take in execution under any execution order any such goods, animals or other chattels as are referred to in that sub-section.

Appointment of fees to be charged for or by under-sheriffs.

14. —(1) The Minister may with the consent of the Minister for Finance by order appoint and from time to time revise—

(a) scales of fees and expenses to be charged by and paid to under-sheriffs for their services in or about the execution of execution orders, and

(b) scales of fees to be charged by and paid to specified officers of any court for the account of the under-sheriff, and

(c) scales of fees and expenses to be charged by and paid to members of the Gárda Síochána in respect of the execution of execution orders which under this Act are to be executed by them.

(2) Every enactment in force immediately before the commencement of this Act in relation to the payment or recovery of fees chargeable by or payable to under-sheriffs, bailiffs, or other persons in respect of the execution of execution orders shall apply to the fees and the expenses (if any) specified in any scale of fees or fees and expenses for the time being in force by virtue of this section in relation to such execution.

(3) All fees appointed in a scale made under this Act of fees to be charged by and paid to a specified officer of a court for the account of the under-sheriff shall be charged by and paid to such officer at the times appointed in such scale and shall be paid or accounted for by such officer to the under-sheriff.