Chapter 3

Legal status of order to pay, etc.

39. —This Chapter specifies the effect an order to pay or, as appropriate, an assessment has for various purposes (including the purposes of certain provisions of the Act of 1961); a different effect is specified by reference to the different circumstances in which an order to pay or an assessment falls to be considered and, in particular, circumstances—

(a) in which there is a default in payment of the amount or amounts specified in an order to pay, and

(b) in which a respondent who has paid the amount or amounts specified in an order to pay seeks to make a claim for contribution against one or more concurrent wrongdoers in respect of the relevant claim concerned.

40. —(1) As between—

(a) the claimant and the respondent or respondents, and

(b) 2 or more respondents,

an order to pay shall, without prejudice to the other provisions of this Chapter, operate as if it were a judgment of a court given for the amount or amounts concerned.

(2) Accordingly the provisions of every enactment (and in particular section 26 of the Debtors (Ireland) Act 1840 but not section 22 of the Courts Act 1981 ) and every instrument under an enactment shall, with any adaptations of them that may be made under subsection (3), apply to an order to pay as they apply to a judgment of a court.

(3) The authority for the time being having power to make rules regulating the practice and procedure of any court (being a court which would have jurisdiction to make an award of the amount or amounts specified in the order to pay concerned) may make rules providing for such adaptations of any enactment or instrument referred to in subsection (2) as are necessary for the purpose of enabling each of the methods that are available for the enforcement of a judgment of that court available for the purpose of the enforcement of an order to pay.

41. —(1) If the amount or amounts specified in an order to pay are paid to the claimant such payment shall constitute a satisfaction of the claimant's relevant claim for the purposes of section 16 of the Act of 1961 as if the claimant had agreed that that payment would be a payment of the full damages to him or her in respect of the claim.

(2) If only a portion of the amount or amounts specified in an order to pay are paid to the claimant such payment shall constitute a partial satisfaction of the claimant's relevant claim for the purposes of section 16 of the Act of 1961.

42. —(1) As between—

(a) one or more respondents and either or both—

(i) one or more non-participating respondents,

(ii) one or more non-accepting respondents,

(b) one or more non-participating respondents or non-accepting respondents and either or both—

(i) one or more other non-participating respondents,

(ii) one or more other non-accepting respondents,

and

(c) any one or more of the foregoing persons and one or more other persons (not falling within either of the preceding paragraphs) who are concurrent wrongdoers as respects the relevant claim,

an order to pay shall, for the purposes of section 22 of the Act of 1961, be regarded as a settlement by the first-mentioned respondent or respondents in paragraph (a) with the claimant of his or her relevant claim.

(2) In this section and the following section—

“non-accepting respondent” has the same meaning as it has in section 34 ;

“non-participating respondent” has the same meaning as it has in section 15 .

43. —For the purposes of the application of section 18 of the Act of 1961 in circumstances where a claimant is not barred from bringing proceedings against a non-participating or non-accepting respondent or respondents, an assessment of the claimant's relevant claim or, if an order to pay in respect of it has been issued, that order to pay, shall be deemed to be an award of damages, of the amount or amounts specified in the assessment or the order to pay, made by the judgment first given (within the meaning of that section).