Discussion and Decision
- At the outset, I will note that on the individual level, respondent 2 - he is the debtor who signed the promissory note that is the subject of the application - signed a debt arrangement, and hence the applicant received her money, which ostensibly makes the decision redundant. However, the parties sought a resolution of the dispute in principle that arose between them, after they had invested considerable effort in arguing about it, and therefore I was required to do so.
- I also found that the state's claim regarding the procedural accommodation of this proceeding should be removed from the chapter. As may be recalled, the state argues that while the Execution Registrar is hearing the appeal, it is not possible to file an application for leave to appeal its decision in this appeal. There is no substance to the claim, since it is contradicted by the provisions of section 80 of the Writ of Execution Law. As may be recalled, Section 80 of the Execution Law, which deals with "appeal and appeal", states as follows:
“)a) A person who considers himself to have been harmed by an action of the Director of the Writ of Execution or a decision of himself or an employee of the Writ of Execution System, may file an appeal before the Writ of Execution Registrar.
- b) Orders and decisions of the Writ of Execution Registrar, including decisions in an appeal under subsection (a), may be appealed, with the permission of a magistrate's court judge before the Magistrate's Court; However, an appeal against a decision under Sections 13, 14, 19, 25, 38(a), 48, 58, 66A(1) and (2), 66E(a), 66G(c)(2), 69Y2(a), 70(a) and 74(a) shall be merited."
In the present case, an appeal was filed with the Honorable Registrar of Execution against the decision of the Execution Office not to allow the opening of a proceeding for the execution of a deed in relation to a digitally signed document. In other words, we are dealing with an appeal as stated in section 80(a) of the Execution Law. In accordance with Section 80(b), a decision of the Execution Registrar in an appeal may be submitted to the Magistrate's Court. Therefore, the respondent's argument in this matter should be rejected.
- In view of the substantive issue at hand, it would be appropriate to grant leave to appeal, and therefore the application should be considered as if permission had been granted and the appeal was filed accordingly.
The Signature Requirement in the Banknotes Ordinance
- Section 3 of the Ordinance determines what constitutes a bill of exchange (including a check that is a bill of exchange in which the drawee is a banking corporation, see section 73(a) of the Ordinance - LHR), and relates inter alia to the existence of a signature as one of the formal requirements required to be in a note. In the words of the Ordinance:
- A bill of exchange is an unconditional written order drawn up by a person to his friend, signed by a giver, in which the person to whom the order is made is required to pay a certain amount in money to a certain person or to his order, or to a receiver, with a demand or at a fixed or determinable future time.
- A document that does not meet these conditions, or contains an order to do something in addition to repayment of money, is not a bill of exchange.
Section 84(a) of the Banknotes Ordinance defines what a promissory note is: