Directory_and_Chronicle_1894 — Page 355

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CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE-HONG KONG

which shall be called a writ of "foreign attachment" and shall be made returnable not less than fourteen days after the date thereof except by Absence from special leave of the Court.

the Colony.

Bond to be entered into before Issue of Writ.

Force thereof.

Writ how executed.

Priority of Writs.

Property in

Custody of a Public Officer, or in custodia legis.

How Lands attached.

registered.

3.-Absence from the Colony shall for the purpose of proceedings by foreign attachment be taken to be absence for the time being, whether the party shall ever have been within the Colony or not.

4.-Before any such writ shall issue, the plaintiff, or some one on his behalf, shall enter into a bond with one or more sufficient sureties, to be approved by the Registrar, in a penal sum equal to twice the amount of the claim, or in any less sum by special leave of the Court, the condition of which said bond shall be that in case the defendant shall, at any time within the period limited by this Ordinance in that behalf, cause the writ to be set aside, or any judgment which may be given in the suit to be reversed or varied, the plaintiff will pay to the defendant all such sums of money, damages, costs, and charges as the Court may order and award on account of or in relation to the said suit, and the said attachment, or either of them: Provided that the Court shall not award a larger amount of damages than it is competent to decree in an action for damages, and such award shall bar any suit for damages in respect of such at- tachment.

5. The bond shall be in such form as the Court may, from time to time, or in any particular case, approve and direct, and shall be entered into before the Registrar and deposited in Court; and whenever it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the Court, upon affidavit or otherwise, that under the circumstances it is expedient that the writ should issue forthwith and before the bond shall have been entered into as aforesaid, the Court may order the writ to issue accordingly, upon such terms as it shall think fit, and by the same order shall limit the time, not exceeding seven days from the date of the issue of the writ, within which the bond must be entered into and deposited as aforesaid; and in the case of default of complying with the requirements of such order within the time thereby limited, the Court may dissolve the writ, and thereupon may award costs and damages to the defendant in the manner hereinbefore provided in the case of a writ being set aside or a judgment in the suit being reversed or varied.

6.-All writs of foreign attachment against moveable property shall be executed by the Sheriff.

7.-Where two or more writs of foreign attachment shall issue at the suit of different plaintiffs, they shall take priority respectively according to the date and time at which they reach the hands of the Sheriff for execu- tion. The Sheriff shall indorse upon the writ the day and time of the receipt thereof.

8.-Property in the custody or under the control of any public offi- cer in his official capacity shall be liable to attachment with the consent of the Attorney-General; and property in custodia legis shall be liable to attachment by leave of the Court. In such cases, the writ of foreign attachment must be served on such public Officer or on the Registrar, as the case may be.

9.-Where the defendant is beneficially entitled to lands or any in- terest therein, a memorial containing a copy of the writ of foreign attach- Memorial to be ment shall be registered in the Land Office established under Ordinance No. 3 of 1844 in a special book to be kept for the purpose, and to be called the "Foreign Attachment Book"; and the date and time of such registration shall be duly noted and entered in the said book; and in case such writ of foreign attachment shall be dissolved, or the judgment in the suit shall be satisfied, a certificate to that effect under the hand of the Regis- trar and the seal of the Court may be filed at the Land Office, and