2009 Hawaii Code
Volume 13
TITLE 36 - CIVIL REMEDIES AND DEFENSES AND SPECIAL PROCEEDINGS
CHAPTER 657 - LIMITATION OF ACTIONS
§657-5 - Domestic judgments and decrees.

     §657-5  Domestic judgments and decrees.  Unless an extension is granted, every judgment and decree of any court of the State shall be presumed to be paid and discharged at the expiration of ten years after the judgment or decree was rendered.  No action shall be commenced after the expiration of ten years from the date a judgment or decree was rendered or extended.  No extension of a judgment or decree shall be granted unless the extension is sought within ten years of the date the original judgment or decree was rendered.  A court shall not extend any judgment or decree beyond twenty years from the date of the original judgment or decree.  No extension shall be granted without notice and the filing of a non-hearing motion or a hearing motion to extend the life of the judgment or decree. [CC 1859, §1051; RL 1925, §2643; am L 1927, c 16, §1; RL 1935, §3914; RL 1945, §10425; RL 1955, §241-5; HRS §657-5; am L 1972, c 105, §1(d); am L 1992, c 74, §1; am L 2001, c 145, §1]

 

Case Notes

 

  District court erred in extending the judgment pursuant to a request that was not made within ten years after the original judgment was rendered.  536 F.3d 980.

  Statute does not run during period decree not enforceable due to interest of a life tenant not subject to plaintiff's claim.  20 H. 225.

  Applied to action seeking enforcement of promissory note where note was enforceable only as part of final divorce decree.  73 H. 566, 836 P.2d 1081.

  Garnishment order conclusively presumed to be paid and discharged upon expiration of underlying judgment.  82 H. 197, 921 P.2d 117.

  General scheme of §653-11 and this section is to terminate a judgment when judgment is actually paid or presumed to be paid as a matter of law.  82 H. 197, 921 P.2d 117.

  Under this section, judgment, together with all rights and remedies appurtenant to it, are conclusively presumed paid and discharged after ten years unless timely renewed.  82 H. 197, 921 P.2d 117.

  This section controls over HRCP rule 5(a); thus, notice of a proposed extension of a judgment pursuant to this section must be provided to the judgment debtor prior to the granting of the extension, even if the debtor is in default and is not required under rule 5(a) to be served with pleadings; although failure to provide notice under §657-7 was error, error was harmless where debtor never appeared to defend debtor's self, had an opportunity to be heard at a HRCP rule 60(b) hearing, and offered no defense on the merits to the original judgment or extension, and thus failed to demonstrate any prejudice.  120 H. 1, 200 P.3d 370.

  Limitations period begins to run on each child support payment as it becomes due; decree creditor may avoid effect of statute of limitations on part of decree debt for which statute has not run by obtaining new decree on unbarred debt.  6 H. App. 201, 716 P.2d 496.

  License revocation order is more like administrative order than judgment subject to ten-year limitations period.  9 H. App. 169, 828 P.2d 1287.

  The notice requirement contained in this section does not apply to defaulted parties who have not appeared; thus, defendant, as a judgment debtor in default, was not entitled to notice of extension proceedings instituted pursuant to this section.  118 H. 132 (App.), 185 P.3d 880.

  Where the August 28, 1996 judgment was the "original judgment" for purposes of the case and the limitation period for a ten-year extension commenced on the August 28, 1996 judgment entry date, trial court erred in concluding that a October 21, 1996 amended judgment was "extinguished" when it was subsequently reversed, vacated and remanded in part by the Hawaii supreme court and that the limitation period commenced on the October 18, 1999 and September 6, 2001 entry dates of the second and fourth amended judgments; thus, motions to extend filed on May 8, 2007 were untimely.  120 H. 123 (App.), 202 P.3d 584.

  Cited:  9 H. 514, 517.