Claiming for recovery of funds and (or) property of others: search for legislative compromise and review of law enforcement practice

Abstract

In the light of extremely low level of enforcement of court decisions in Ukraine, the formation of effective legal instruments of coercive judgment enforcement measures is getting particularly important. One of the most effective ways to protect the interests of the claimant, which increases the effectiveness of execution of a court decision of a property nature and expands the possibilities of enforcement proceedings, is to claim for recovery of money and (or) property of others. This legal institution allows the enforcement of money and (or) property of another person who is not a party to the enforcement proceedings, but either holds the property or has a debt to the debtor. The article describes the issue of legislative uncertainty of the procedural status of another person whose property and (or) funds are being recovered and formulates ways to resolve it. A number of collisions between the Civil and Commercial Procedural Codes and the Law of Ukraine “On Enforcement Proceedings” were revealed in terms of legal regulation of the institution of claim for recovery of property of others, in particular in terms of seizure of funds of a person in debt to the debtor. It is proposed to resolve the identified collisions in favor of procedural codes. The legal nature of the arrest, which is imposed on the money of another person in the recovery procedure, is determined. On the example of case law, the discretionary power of the court in considering claims for recovery of funds of a person who owes money to the debtor are analyzed, and the incompleteness of the legislative list of grounds for refusal to satisfy the application for recovery is stated. Attention is drawn to the imperfection of the procedural codes in terms of regulating the possibility to appeal to Court of Appeal and Court of Cassation judgements issued as a result of consideration of claims for recovery of funds of a person who has debts to the debtor. Through the prism of law enforcement practice, the subject of proof in the consideration of applications for recovery of funds of persons who have debts to the debtor and clarifies the distribution of the burden of proof in this category of cases.