CAYMAN ISLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Guy Manning, Harry Shaw and Shaun Tracey, Campbells
judgment creditor since that would exclude all of the bankrupt’s other creditors. However, Gayhart & Anoth- er v Schanck (Grand Court, unreported judgment of Kawaley J dated 14 August 2020) confirms that the court will, in appropriate cases, “pierce the corporate veil” in order to permit enforcement of a judgment debt via equitable execution. On the application of a judgment debtor, the court may grant a stay of execution pending an appeal against the judgment. An appeal does not automatically give rise to any stay of execution; however, the court has discretion to grant a stay, and it will ordinarily do so where the applicant establishes a good reason, such as the risk of a successful appeal being rendered nugatory. The applicant must satisfy the court that it has a real prospect of success on appeal, that the appeal is bona fide and the balance of convenience favours a stay. No stay will be granted if the respond - ent would be unfairly prejudiced by being deprived of the proceeds of the judgment. These principles were confirmed in the decision in Deputy Registrar v Day [2019 (1) CILR 510], a high- profile case concerning same-sex marriage rights. If the judgment is for payment of a sum of money and the court is satisfied having regard to all relevant factors (including the strength or weakness of the grounds of appeal) that a stay should be granted, the whole judgment sum will usually be ordered to be paid into court unless there is good cause for not imposing that requirement ( Shanda Games Limited v Maso Capital Investment Limited & Others , Cayman Islands Court of Appeal, unreported, 18 August 2017). The court may also grant a partial stay, whereby an undisputed part of the judgment debt is satisfied and the disputed balance is paid into court (for example, In the matter of Nord Anglia Education, Inc , Grand Court, unreported judgment of Kawaley J dated 26 May 2020; see also the reported note at [2020 (2) CILR Note 4]). If the trial judge refuses to grant a stay of execution, the applicant may renew its application to the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal. 2.6 Unenforceable Domestic Judgments Generally, all judgments made by the Cayman Islands courts are capable of being enforced.
A judgment creditor will be unable to enforce a judg - ment that the judgment debtor successfully applies to be set aside; for example, on the grounds that a default judgment was irregular on account of the pro - ceedings never having been served on the defendant. 2.7 Register of Domestic Judgments The judicial administration maintains a public register of originating processes, orders and judgments, save to the extent such documents have been determined by the court to be confidential or are otherwise sealed. This register contains a copy of every final written judg - ment unless the court directs otherwise. The register does not contain any additional or separate record of any information such as the amounts paid under any judgments, and a judgment will not be removed from the register once it has been satisfied. 3. Foreign Judgments 3.1 Legal Issues Concerning Enforcement of Foreign Judgments The Cayman Islands has a well-established regime for the enforcement of foreign judgments. The Cayman Islands has enacted the Foreign Judg - ments Reciprocal Enforcement Act (1996 Revision) in respect of foreign money judgments; however, this legislation has to date only been extended to Australia and its external territories. All other foreign judgments must be enforced under common law rules, which, in summary, provide for enforcement where: • the court issuing the judgment had personal juris - diction over the defendant; • the judgment is final and conclusive; and • the judgment has not been obtained by fraud or in breach of natural justice and is not contrary to Cay - man Islands public policy. Therefore, the legal issues concerning the enforce - ment of foreign judgments typically involve challenges to enforcement on the grounds that one or more of these requirements has not been fulfilled.
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