PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Joaquim Shearman de Macedo, Pedro Metello de Nápoles, Luís Heleno Terrinha and Ana Coimbra Trigo, PLMJ
ings, the enforcement agent enjoys a period of three months to search and locate the debtor’s seizable assets, running from the date of notification by the court’s registrar to commence pre-seizure actions. If within this period its efforts fail to identify those assets, both the creditor and the debtor will be noti - fied to provide a list of seizable assets. If neither does so, the enforcement proceedings will be terminated. 2.5 Challenging Enforcement of Domestic Judgments The debtor may challenge the enforcement request by raising objections to enforcement within 20 days from the date of the summons. The grounds to object to the enforcement of a domestic judgment are specified by law and include: • unenforceability or inexistence of the judgment; • forgery or inaccuracy of the file or of the certified copy; • breach of a procedural requirement on which the regularity of the enforcement proceedings depends; • non-participation of the defendant in the declara - tory process by reason of the summons not being served, the summons being null and void, una - wareness of the summons not attributable to the debtor, or any other force majeure event; • uncertainty, unenforceability or non-liquidity of the underlying obligation; • post-judgment facts or events leading to the extinction or modification of the underlying obliga - tion; • counterclaim by the debtor against the credi - tor to the effect of offsetting the obligation being enforced; and • any ground of nullity or voidability of acts of admis - sion or settlement, when the domestic judgment being enforced consists of the approval of those acts. Besides challenging the enforcement request, the debtor may also object to the seizure of its assets on the following grounds:
• seizure of assets that only subsidiarily satisfy the debt being enforced; and • seizure of assets that should not have been affected by the seizure according to the applicable substantive law. Finally, an appeal from decisions taken within the enforcement proceedings may also be available depending on the circumstances of the case. This will hold, in particular, for interlocutory declarations such as: • decisions ordering the cancellation of a registra - tion; • decisions ruling on the exercise of the right of pri - ority or redemption; • decisions suspending, extinguishing or annulling enforcement; • decisions ruling on the annulment of the sale of assets; and • decisions refusing to examine or dismissing the enforcement application. 2.6 Unenforceable Domestic Judgments Portuguese law provides that enforcement can only be sought in regards of obligations which are certain, enforceable and liquid. If the certainty and enforce - ability of the underlying obligation do not clearly result from the domestic judgment, the enforcement pro - ceedings will start with a phase aimed at analysing whether that is the case or not. If the underlying obli - gation is not yet liquid, an incident of liquidation will be provoked. Moreover, Portuguese law provides that only final judgments may be enforced. Final judgments are those against which an appeal can no longer be lodged. Time limitations should also be taken into considera - tion when enforcing domestic judgments. If the under - lying obligation is no longer enforceable because it is time-barred in accordance with Portuguese law, the debtor may object to the enforcement proceedings on that ground. The general limitation period in Por - tugal is 20 years, but certain obligations are subject to shorter limitation periods.
• seizure of non-seizable assets; • inadequate scope of the seizure;
369 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook