Cap. 16 Art. 1178ADeposit of money due where a judgment orders payment to multiple creditors.

(1) Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Sub-

Title or of any other law, where a final judgment is given by a court ordering the payment of a sum of money to more than one person, without specifically determining what sum of the total sum awarded is to be paid to each person, and the judgment creditors are not joint and several creditors, the debtor who has been so ordered to pay the sum may free himself from such obligation and shall be exempt from the payment of any further interest upon the sum ordered to be paid in the judgment as from the date of deposit in court of the sum due by means of a lodgement schedule if the following conditions are satisfied:

(i) within three (3) months from the date of the judgment, the judgment creditors do not, on their own initiative and without the need for any request to be made to them, give joint instructions to the debtor or debtors, as the case may be, by means of a judicial letter, as to how the sum adjudicated by the court is to be divided amongst them and in the said judicial letter they shall also give the debtor specific instructions on the manner in which the sum due is to be paid which shall include all information necessary to enable such payment to be made; and

(ii) after the lapse of the aforesaid period of three (3) months, the debtor deposits the sum due or, subject to sub-article (4) any part thereof in respect of which he has not been given instructions as provided in paragraph (i). The deposit shall be at the expense of the debtor.

(2) The lodgement schedule shall in all cases be filed in the First Hall Civil Court except in cases where the sum deposited falls within the competence of the Court of Magistrates, in which case such lodgement schedule shall be filed in the Court of Magistrates.

(3) Where there is more than one person entitled to the sum ordered to be paid in the judgment, it shall be sufficient for the debtor to serve the lodgement schedule upon at least one of the judgment creditors and upon any one of the advocates or legal procurators who represented any of the judgment creditors in the cause at the time of the judgment and to cause the publication of such lodgement schedule in the Government Gazette and in two daily newspapers, one of which shall be in the Maltese language and the other in the English language.

(4) Without prejudice to the generality of this article, a deposit made for the purposes of this article may not be impugned on any of the grounds provided in articles 1173 and 1175 or on the basis of a defect of form, death of a party or the lack of deposit of any interest on the sum adjudicated or of costs due according to the judgment: Provided that the rights of the judgment creditors in respect of any sum not included in the deposit shall not be prejudiced by reason of that exclusion.

(5) Where the instructions provided for in sub-article (1)(i) are not given by all the judgment creditors the debtor may elect either to avail himself of the provisions of this article only in respect of those creditors who have not given such instructions or in respect of all judgment creditors or, of some of them.

(6) Any one of the judgment creditors may, at any time and without the consent of the other judgment creditors being required, file an application to the court for the withdrawal of his share of the sum deposited upon the court being satisfied of his share.

(7) This article shall apply in respect of all judgments even if delivered before the coming into force thereof, sohowever that in respect of judgments delivered before the coming into force of this article, the period of three (3) months provided in sub-article (1)(i) and (ii) shall commence to run from the day immediately after the day of the coming into force of this article.

§ II. OF NOVATION