The Supreme Court held that a detention decision made by the Court of Appeal in Muscat under article 418 of the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law is final and cannot be challenged before the Supreme Court.
Facts
An Omani community member joined a jamiyya, i.e. a rotating savings and credit association. A dispute occurred between the community member and the jamiyya organiser, which led to the member taking formal legal action against the organiser. A court judgment was made in favour of the member, whereby the court ordered to have the sum of the contributions made by that member be paid at a specific time. Based on this judgment, the community member attempted to enforce the judgment against the organiser in his personal capacity, which resulted in the court ordering the detention of the organiser until all the amounts due to the member are paid. This led to the organiser making an objection against the enforcement decision before the Primary Court in Muscat.
Procedure
The Primary Court in Muscat rejected the objections made by the organiser. Dissatisfied with this outcome, the organiser appealed to the Court of Appeal in Muscat, and argued that the payments due to the member are meant to be paid from the funds of the jamiyya and not from the personal funds of the organiser. The organiser also argued he should not be personally liable for the debts of the jamiyya because he does not own it, but merely volunteers to manage it. The Court of Appeal in Muscat accepted these arguments and ruled in favour of the organiser by annulling the judgment of the primary court and suspending all enforcement measures against the organiser.
Dissatisfied with this outcome, the member contested the ruling of the Court of Appeal in Muscat before the Supreme Court to reinstate the enforcement measures against the organiser.
Court Judgment
The Supreme Court referred to article 418 of the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law, which sets the process for detaining a non-prevailing litigant if this litigant fails to comply with a court judgment and stipulates that a decision made to detain a non-prevailing litigant in this case can only be challenged before the relevant court of appeal. The Supreme Court clarified that this article means that the judgment of the court of appeal in this regard is final and cannot be contested before the Supreme Court.
Based on this, the Supreme Court rejected the contestation made by the member.
Conclusion
This judgment provides an example of the implementation of article 418 of the Civil and Commercial Procedures Law and clarifies that judgments made by a court of appeal in regard to detentions made pursuant to this article are final and cannot be contested before the Supreme Court.
Citation
Supreme Court Contestation 364/2020 Civil A (issued 26 December 2021) CJSC Personal-Civil 2021-2022, 528.