New South Wales Consolidated Acts

MATRIMONIAL CAUSES ACT 1899 - SECT 90B

90B Enforcement of order by means of certificate of amount due and judgment thereon

(1) This section applies to an order made by the Court before or after the commencement of the Matrimonial Causes (Amendment) Act 1958 for the payment by any person of alimony or maintenance to any other person.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in this or any other Act an order to which this section applies made against a female shall be enforced only in the manner provided in this section.

(3) Where it is made to appear upon oath to the registrar or a deputy-registrar in divorce that default has, before or after the commencement of the Matrimonial Causes (Amendment) Act 1958 , been made by a person against whom an order to which this section applies has been made in making the payments directed by the order and that an amount of more than twenty dollars is due thereunder, the registrar or deputy-registrar may grant a certificate in the prescribed form stating the amount due under the order at the date of the certificate without requiring notice of the application to be given to that person.

(4) The person entitled to receive the money ordered to be paid may file or cause to be filed the certificate in the Supreme Court or in any District Court having jurisdiction within the district wherein the person against whom the order was made resides or wherein any real property of the last-mentioned person is situated, and the Prothonotary or the registrar of the District Court in which the certificate is so filed, as the case may be, shall enter judgment for the person so entitled for the amount stated to be due in the certificate together with the fees paid therefor and for filing the certificate and entering the judgment.
The judgment may, subject to subsection five of this section, be enforced in any manner in which a final judgment in an action may be enforced.

(5)

(a) On the application of the person against whom the order was made or his executor or administrator, the Court, if it deems it just and proper to do so, may, whether or not proceedings to enforce the judgment have been commenced:

(i) order that the judgment shall not be enforced, or

(ii) order that the judgment be paid at such time or times and by such instalments, if any, as the Court thinks fit,

and, where proceedings to enforce the judgment have been commenced, may:

(iii) set aside or stay execution if execution has issued,

(iv) set aside an order made in those proceedings attaching debts due, owing or accruing to that person and order that any moneys that have already been received by the judgment creditor under the order firstmentioned in this subparagraph or that have been paid into court under the order firstmentioned in the subparagraph but have not been paid to the judgment creditor be paid to the person firstmentioned in this subparagraph or his executor or administrator,

(v) make such other or further order in relation to those proceedings as may be just.

(b) The powers conferred on a Court by this subsection shall not be construed as limiting or affecting any power possessed by the Court apart from this subsection.

(c) In this subsection "Court" means:

(i) where the certificate is filed in the Supreme Court-the Supreme Court in its common law jurisdiction or a Judge of that Court exercising that jurisdiction,

(ii) where the certificate is filed in a District Court-a Judge of that Court.

(6) Rules of court may prescribe the practice and procedure, to be observed in the Supreme Court and in District Courts, for carrying out or giving effect to this section and, without limiting the generality of the power conferred by the foregoing provisions of this subsection, may prescribed the practice and procedure to be so observed in connection with the filing of certificates and entering up of judgments thereon in pursuance of this section, and the fees to be paid.