What is an objection to a request to quash a judgment?
An objection to a motion to set aside a judgment or a response to a motion to set aside a judgment is a pleading that is filed in the court file when a party (usually the defendant) decides to file a motion to set aside a judgment. An objection to a motion to set aside a judgment must be filed accompanied by an affidavit on behalf of the party, as provided for in Regulation 50(1) of the Civil Procedure Regulations, Only if the objection is based on factual argumentsFailure to attach an affidavit to an objection based on factual arguments may be grounds for rejecting the objection.
It is not necessary to attach an affidavit if the opposition to the request to set aside a judgment is based solely on legal arguments.
You can request Cancellation of a judgment In two situations:
- When possible Judgment in the absence of a defense – Claims over 75 thousand shekels must be filed Defense within 60 daysIn claims up to 75 thousand shekels (A lawsuit in a speedy trial) should be submitted Defense Within 45 days. If the defendant has not filed a defense on time, the plaintiff may file Request for a default judgment.
- When one of the parties fails to appear for the hearing – this default is relevant to both the plaintiff and the defendant. In the event that one of them fails to appear for the hearing, the court may issue a judgment in default of appearance.
Pay attention – There is a difference between filing a request to annul a judgment and Filing an appeal against a judgmentIf a judgment is rendered in the absence of a defense or appearance, the correct way to challenge such a judgment is to first file a motion to set aside the judgment (after which an objection to the motion to set aside the judgment will be filed), and if the motion to set aside the judgment is denied, one may consider filing a motion to set aside the judgment. Request for leave to appeal (And not an appeal on merits – a matter that was discussed and decided in a ruling).
This issue is also clearly regulated within the framework of Regulation 137(c) of theCivil Procedure Regulations:
(c) The deadline for filing an appeal against a decision given ex parte, regarding which a request for annulment was submitted under Regulation 131, shall be counted from the date of filing of the decision in the request for annulment.
ראו בעניין זה גם את פסיקת בית המשפט העליון ע"א 9945-05-25 עבדאללה דגים נ' מנהל מיסוי מקרקעין – נצרת:
In addition to the above, I found it acceptable to accept the respondent's claim that the appellant included in his appeal, contrary to law, an appellate objection to the decision given pursuant to Regulation 137(c) of the Rules of Procedure.
כידוע, על החלטה מסוג זה לא מוקנית זכות ערעור וניתן להגיש עליה בקשת רשות ערעור בלבד. עמד על כך כב' השופט (כתוארו אז) י' עמית בע"א 7045/23 נ.א.ד.ש השקעות בע"מ נ' קרדיט 24 בע"מ, פיסקה 8 [נבו] (24.10.2023) בציינו כי "יש להבחין בין פסק דין שניתן בהעדר הגנה – שהערעור עליו הוא בזכות, להחלטה הדוחה בקשה לביטול פסק דין שניתן בהעדר הגנה – שהערעור עליה הוא ברשות" (כן ראו, החלטת כב' השופט (כתוארו אז) נ' סולברג בע"א 7882/14 אהרון נ' עובדיה [נבו] (27.11.2014); וכן: בש"א 5574/20 אבו נאסר נ' גאבר, פיסקה 6 [נבו] (22.4.2021); רע"א 1731/21 לנגר נ' פודל [נבו] (7.6.2021); ע"א 4289/24 שיטה נ' גליננסקי [נבו] (1.7.2024)).
Is it mandatory to submit a response to a request to quash a judgment?
It is not mandatory to file an objection to a request to annul a judgment. However, it should be understood that failure to file an objection to a request to annul a judgment means that the court will most likely order the annulment of the judgment and the resumption of proceedings.
In most cases, it is advisable to file an objection to a request to quash a judgment., but there are very few situations in which it is worth considering not filing an objection to a request to quash a judgment.
These are mainly situations where the litigant knows that a lawful discovery was not made. Claim to the defendant, which is why the defendant did not file a defense.
A similar situation is when a litigant did not receive a summons to a hearing and therefore did not appear for the hearing, and despite this, for some reason a judgment was rendered in the case.
In these cases and in the case where the defendant was served with a statement of claim by posting it on the door of his house (after three visits), there is a high chance that even if an objection is filed to the request to annul the judgment, the court will order the annulment of the judgment.
The risk for the opponent is that if he does file an objection and the court rejects it, there is a very high probability that the court will charge the opponent with legal costs. Sometimes an amount Legal expenses is not significant and can sometimes reach thousands of shekels. This is definitely a consideration that needs to be considered in some cases.
What to write in an objection to a request to quash a judgment?
within Request to annul a judgment The applicant will try to convince the court that he did not receive the statement of claim or the summons to the hearing, and if he did, he did not file a statement of defense or did not appear for the hearing for a justified reason (for example, illness). The goal is to show that the litigant did not disregard the legal process.
In addition, if the litigant has not filed a defense, he will try to convince the court that he has good chances of defending, and he must detail the defense arguments as part of his motion.
As part of an objection to a request to annul a judgment, these claims should be addressed and an attempt should be made to contradict them with appropriate factual and/or legal claims.
Note the number of pages of the request to quash a judgment.
A motion to set aside a judgment should be drafted in five pages only. In many cases, the petitioner exceeds this, and anyone who wishes to object to the motion should be aware of this and specify in their objection that the petitioner has exceeded the maximum possible number of pages. In many cases, the court will order the petitioner to submit an amended motion, in some cases it will order the respondent to address certain sections of the motion (and not the entire motion), and in exceptional cases it will even order the dismissal of the motion to set aside a judgment.
Check whether an affidavit was attached to the request to cancel a judgment.
If an affidavit was not attached to the request to cancel a judgment, and there are factual arguments in the request, it is very important to address this as part of an objection to the request to cancel a judgment.
In the absence of an affidavit, the request to quash a judgment may (and should) be rejected outright, and therefore it is very important to make this claim.
Did the applicant specify when he learned of the ruling?
Regulation 131 of the Civil Procedure Regulations states as follows:
131. The court issued a decision ex parte and the party against whom the decision was issued filed a motion to quash. Within thirty days from the date the decision was served on him, the court may annul it, under such conditions as it deems fit; this provision shall not apply to an application to the court under Regulation 33(d).
That is, if the application to annul a judgment was filed 30 days after it was served on the applicant, and he did not file Request for extension of time for filing a request to annul a judgmentThe request should To reject outright that At this stage, the applicant does not have the right to submit his application.And it is very important to emphasize this matter in response to a request to quash a judgment.
Did the applicant explain how he received the claim?
There is a difference between a situation in which the statement of claim was served by personal delivery to the defendant and a situation in which a statement of claim was taped to the door of the defendant's house and the defendant claims that he did not receive the statement of claim.
This may be a consideration in the judge's decision, and therefore one should check whether the matter was stated in the request and address it as part of a response to the request to quash a judgment.
Did the defendant detail the defense arguments in his application?
If it is a judgment given in the absence of a defense and the applicant for the annulment of the judgment has not specified the defense arguments, this may be grounds for rejecting the application. This must be addressed in the response to the application for the annulment of the judgment in the absence of a defense.
ראו בעניין זה רע"א 6730/22 יאיר נתניהו נ' אבי אלקלעי:
נתניהו טוען, כי "דרך המלך" במקרים שבהם ניתן פסק דין בהעדר הגנה, היא ביטול פסק הדין, תוך 'ריפוי' הנזק שנגרם לבעל הדין שכנגד, באמצעות פסיקת הוצאות בגין אי-הגשת כתב ההגנה במועד. לשיטתו, "כך נהוג בתיקים אחרים וכך יש לנהוג בתיק שבכותרת"; מה גם, ש"הפער בין הפסיקה בפועל בעניין לבין התיק שבכותרת […] מעל[ה] שאלות קשות ביותר". This claim – I cannot accept it..
…
We see that the decision whether to annul a judgment rendered in the absence of a defense, or not, is, according to the regulation, expressly left to the discretion of the court; The regulation does not impose an obligation to do so.. ודוק: אף אם צודק נתניהו בטענתו, שלפיה ברוב המקרים הנטייה היא לאפשר את ביטול פסק הדין, תוך פסיקת הוצאות – ואכן, "בפסיקה ניכרת מגמה להעתר לבקשות לביטול פסק דין בהעדר הגנה" (ע"א 7882/14 אהרון נ' עובדיה, פסקה 12 (27.11.2014); (להלן: עניין אהרון)) – אין בכך כדי ללמד כי כך נפסק בכל המקריםIn practice, requests to annul a judgment have been rejected more than once, in decisions approved by this court. (ראו למשל: רע"א 1957/12 חלה נ' כהן (22.5.2012); רע"א 2582/13 גריפאת נ' רשות הפיתוח (2.6.2013); רע"א 5736/15 עובד נ' פקיד שומה טבריה (8.10.2015)).
…
למעלה מן הצורך אציין, כי גם לגופם דברים, לא היה מקום להעתר לבקשה. כידוע, "פסק דין שניתן בהעדר הגנה או במעמד צד אחד ניתן לביטול כאשר הדבר 'Committed to justice', for example due to a defect in the invention, or by virtue of the court's discretion […]. The criteria for examining a request to annul a judgment given ex parte by virtue of the court's discretion are based on two considerations: one, the reason for the failure to submit the defense, or the party's failure to appear for the hearing; השני, סיכויי הצלחתו של בעל הדין אם יבוטל פסק הדין שניתן […] בדרך כלל יש לייחס חשיבות רבה יותר לשיקול השני" (רע"א 1788/20 אברג'יל נ' אלקטרז איילנד בע"מ, פסקה 8 (5.11.2020)).
כאמור, הטענה היחידה שנטענה בבקשה לביטול פסק הדין, היא שביטול פסק הדין "מתחייב מן הצדק", שכן כתב התביעה לא הומצא לנתניהו כדין. ואולם, טענה זו נדחתה; Therefore, and since Netanyahu did not raise any claim regarding the chances of his defense succeeding if the verdict were overturned (claims that are usually raised in cases such as this and, as mentioned, are given great importance), there was no choice but to reject his request to overturn the verdict..
In conclusion
When filing a motion to set aside a judgment, the respondent has the right to file a response to the motion to set aside a judgment or an objection to the motion to set aside a judgment. In most cases, it will be appropriate to file such an objection, but there are certain cases in which one should consider forgoing filing an objection to set aside a judgment in order to avoid the risk of incurring costs in favor of the opposing party.
When drafting an objection to a request to set aside a judgment, a number of important issues must be addressed, such as whether the request is supported by an affidavit, whether the applicant filed the request on time, whether the request specifies the reason for the failure to file a defense or fail to appear at the hearing, and if the defendant did not file a defense, it must be checked whether he detailed his defense arguments in his request.
These omissions by the applicant should be addressed in the context of an objection to the request to quash a judgment. If the objection is formulated correctly, the chances increase that the request to annul a judgment will be rejected.
