PANAMA Law and Practice Contributed by: Jorge Molina Mendoza and Alberto de Urriola Rubio, FABREGA MOLINO
9.2 Rules Regarding Damages Damages include both material and moral damages. Material damage is limited to the amount proven at trial. In cases of moral damage affecting the plaintiff’s decorum, honour, reputation or standing, the judge may order the publication of an extract of the judg- ment. The judge may not order the defendant to pay more than the amount requested by the plaintiff, or to do something different from what was requested by the plaintiff. Punitive damages are not available and there are no caps on maximum damages. 9.3 Pre-Judgment and Post-Judgment Interest A successful party may collect interest based on the period before judgment is entered, if the defendant’s obligation involved paying a specific amount of mon- ey. The general interest rate is 6% in civil cases and 10% in commercial cases, unless a different rate was agreed by the parties, and is accrued from the date on which the party stopped paying. A party may collect interest accruing after the judg- ment is entered. There are no statutory limits on the award of pre-judg- ment interest. 9.4 Enforcement Mechanisms of a Domestic Judgment For the enforcement of a domestic judgment, the win- ning party may request the court to seize any assets that belong to the losing party and give them to the winning party. If the losing party’s obligation involves performing an act, the judge will order the act to be done at the cost of the losing party or the court may order the losing party to pay damages. If the judgment involved not performing an act, the court may order the act to be undone and the party to pay damages. 9.5 Enforcement of a Judgment From a Foreign Country The general procedure for enforcing a judgment from a foreign country is applied if there are no treaties that govern the matter. The general rule is that the judg- ment will only be enforced if judgments from Panama
are enforceable in that country. The following require- ments must be observed: • the judgment must have been given as a result of a personal claim; • the judgment cannot have been given in a process in which the complaint was not personally notified to the defendant; • the obligation to be executed must be licit in Panama; and • an authentic copy of the judgment must be provid- ed to the court, with a translation if the judgment is not in Spanish. The enforcement of a foreign judgment is carried out by the Fourth Chamber of the Supreme Court. The execution request is notified to the losing party and the Panama Attorney General, both of which have five days to respond. If the losing party challenges the execution, the Supreme Court will grant a term for the parties to present evidence as well as a term for the evidence to be examined by the court. Subse- quently, a term is granted for the parties to submit their arguments. Finally, the Supreme Court decides if the judgment is to be enforced or not. If it approves the enforcement, the case is sent to a judge to carry out the enforcement procedure. 10. Appeal 10.1 Levels of Appeal or Review to a Litigation The following remedies are available to a litigant party in the Panamanian legal system: • Reconsideration: request for the judge who issued the decision to revoke, amend, supplement or clarify their own ruling. This can only be requested against decisions that cannot be appealed. • Appeal: request for a higher court to revoke or amend the decision of the lower court. Not all deci- sions are appealable. • Challenge of fact: may be filed by a party whose attempt to appeal was rejected by the lower court (in Panama, lower courts must grant the party per- mission to appeal before the higher court).
873 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook