Hawaii execution: ten days, and post-judgment discovery is limited to depositions

Hawaii's Rule 69 does something almost no other state's does. Where most rules let a judgment creditor "obtain discovery" under the rules generally, Hawaii's says the creditor may do so "in the manner provided in these rules for taking depositions."

That is a real limit. The route to your financial information is a deposition, not a set of interrogatories or a document request.

What Rule 69 allows

Haw. R. Civ. P. 69:

Process to enforce a judgment for the payment of money shall be a writ of execution, unless the court directs otherwise. The procedure on execution, in proceedings supplementary to and in aid of a judgment, and in proceedings on and in aid of execution shall be in the manner provided by the law of the State. In aid of the judgment or execution, the judgment creditor or the judgment creditor's successor in interest when that interest appears of record, may obtain discovery from any person, including the judgment debtor, in the manner provided in these rules for taking depositions.

The consequence is practical. A deposition has to be noticed, scheduled and taken, with a reporter, and the deponent answers in real time with the protections a deposition carries. That is a slower and more visible process than serving written questions.

Compare Massachusetts and Kentucky, whose Rule 69 equivalents open all of the discovery rules to a judgment creditor.

Exemptions and the mechanics of a levy are not in the rules. Both are "provided by the law of the State".

The automatic ten days

Haw. R. Civ. P. 62(a):

Automatic stay; exceptions - Injunctions, receiverships, and accountings. Except as stated herein, no execution shall issue upon a judgment nor shall proceedings be taken for its enforcement until the expiration of 10 days after its entry. Unless otherwise ordered by the court, an interlocutory or final judgment in an action for an injunction or in a receivership action, or a judgment or order directing an accounting shall not be stayed during the period after its entry and until an appeal is taken or during the pendency of an appeal.

The accounting carve-out is Hawaii's own, shared with South Carolina and absent from the federal rule. An order directing an accounting is enforceable at once and stays enforceable through an appeal.

Ten days is short. If the judgment is one you intend to attack, the post-judgment motion and the stay request need to be ready together — and Hawaii's post-judgment motion deadlines are themselves ten days and, in six instances, cannot be moved. See Hawaii post-judgment motions.

The catch-all in the discretionary stay

Rule 62(b):

Stay on motion for new trial or for judgment. In its discretion and on such conditions for the security of the adverse party as are proper, the court may stay the execution of or any proceedings to enforce a judgment pending the disposition of a motion for a new trial or to alter or amend a judgment made pursuant to Rule 59, or of a motion for relief from a judgment or order made pursuant to Rule 60, or of a motion for judgment in accordance with a motion for a directed verdict made pursuant to Rule 50, or of a motion for amendment to the findings or for additional findings made pursuant to Rule 52(b), or when justice so requires in other cases until such time as the court may fix.

The first four grounds are the standard list — Rule 59, Rule 60, Rule 50 and Rule 52(b).

The fifth is not. "or when justice so requires in other cases until such time as the court may fix" is an open-ended power that does not depend on any motion being pending. Most states' Rule 62(b) is a closed list; Hawaii's ends with a general equitable discretion.

Where your situation does not fit one of the four motions, that clause is the one to build a request on.

Hawaii's Rule 60(b) carries six grounds and a one-year outer limit the court cannot extend. See setting aside a Hawaii judgment.

The stay on appeal

Rule 62(d):

Stay upon appeal. When an appeal is taken the appellant by giving a supersedeas bond may obtain a stay subject to the exceptions contained in subdivision (a) of this rule. The bond may be given at or after the time of filing the notice of appeal or of procuring the order allowing the appeal, as the case may be. The stay is effective when the supersedeas bond is approved by the court.

The bond may be given at or after the notice of appeal, and the stay begins when the court approves it — not when it is filed. With only ten days of automatic protection, the approval step is the one to start early.

The subdivision (a) exceptions survive a bond, so an injunction, receivership or accounting judgment is not stayed by posting security. Rule 62(c) governs those, letting the court suspend, modify, restore or grant an injunction pending appeal "upon such terms as to bond or otherwise as it considers proper".

Rule 62(e) relieves the State or a county, and their officers and agencies, of any bond, obligation or security where enforcement is stayed on their appeal. Hawaii's counties stand in for the cities and towns other states list.

Rule 62(g) preserves the power of the supreme court and the intermediate court of appeals, and 62(h) covers a Rule 54(b) judgment on fewer than all claims.

Where this connects

For the case itself, see the Hawaii motion to dismiss — twenty days to answer, ten after a denial — and Hawaii summary judgment, with its four stacked deadlines.

On discovery generally, see Hawaii discovery: initial disclosures in fourteen days, and sixty interrogatories.

How Hawaii compares

A short checklist

1. Count ten days from entry. Nothing issues before then.
2. Have the motion and the stay request ready together — ten days is not long.
3. If none of the four motions fits, use the "justice so requires" clause in Rule 62(b).
4. Get a supersedeas bond approved, not merely filed.
5. A bond will not stay an injunction, receivership or accounting judgment. Rule 62(c) is the route.
6. Expect a deposition rather than written discovery if the creditor comes looking for assets.
7. For exemptions and levy procedure, go to the statutes — Rule 69 supplies neither.

Where these rules live

• Haw. R. Civ. P. 62 — Stay of Proceedings to Enforce a Judgment
• Haw. R. Civ. P. 69 — Execution
• Haw. R. Civ. P. 60 — Relief from Judgment or Order

This page explains what the rules say. It isn't legal advice, and what property is exempt from execution is governed by statutes this site doesn't cover.