萬國法律事務所

In response to the many recent fraud cases reported, the Taiwan Legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee held a vote to amend the Civil Procedural Law on 25 May 2015. The amenment, if enacted, would result in the issuance of a payment orders from the court no longer having the same effect as a final judgment with binding effect. However, as the Judicial Yuan does not support this proposed amendment, negotiations among the parties are still ongoing in the Legislature.

Recently, people committing fraud have been applying to the courts for issuance of payment orders against those lacking legal knowledge, and once those victims fail to file within 20 days an objection to the payment order to the issuing court, the payment order will have the same effect as a final judgment with binding effect. In such cases, the payment orders allow those committing fraud to start proceedings for compulsory execution against their victims, and the result damages or destroys the property of the victims. Therefore, Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator, Lin Guo Zheng (林國正) proposed an amendment to the Civil Procedural Law in the Legislature, hoping to save those innocent victims and to provide them a remedy.

The proposed amendment requires a creditor to offer basic evidence and to reinforce the preliminary showing on the facts to support his application for a payment order before a court will grant his application. Moreover, if a debtor fails within 20 days to file an objection to the payment order to the issuing court, the payment order will only become enforceable, but, will not have the binding effect of a final judgment. If a creditor wants to start the proceeding for compulsory execution of the payment order against the debtor, the creditor must offer evidence to make a preliminary showing on the facts of his credit before a court can grant the order for compulsory execution.

In addition, with respect to the legal remedy of a payment order in this proposed amendment, as the payment order only becomes enforceable, a debtor can initiate an action for a declaratory judgment confirming the non-existence of such credit rather than initiating a rehearing action, in which is often difficult for a plaintiff debtor to meet the requirements. Thus, a debtor could also file a motion for provision of security to stay the execution.