South Carolina execution: ten days, and a supersedeas stay does not start until the bond is approved

South Carolina gives a judgment debtor ten days before anything can issue. After that, a stay on appeal requires a supersedeas bond — and the rule is precise about when it begins to work.

The stay is effective when the supersedeas bond is approved by the court.

Not when the bond is filed, and not when the notice of appeal is served. Approved. The gap between tendering a bond and getting it approved is a window in which execution can proceed.

The automatic ten days

S.C. R. Civ. P. 62(a):

Automatic Stay; Exceptions--Injunctions, Receivership, 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 provisions of subdivision (c) of this rule govern the suspending, modifying, restoring, or granting of an injunction during the pendency of an appeal.

The accounting exception is South Carolina's own addition; the federal rule and most state versions carve out injunctions and receiverships alone. An order directing an accounting is enforceable straight away and stays enforceable through an appeal.

The stay on appeal

Rule 62(d):

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

Three points sit in that paragraph.

The bond may be given at or after the notice of appeal, so there is no requirement to have it ready on day one.

Approval is the trigger. Filing the bond does not stop execution; the court's approval does. Building in time for that step is the practical lesson.

The subdivision (a) exceptions survive. A supersedeas bond does not stay an injunction, a receivership or an accounting — those go to Rule 62(c), which lets the court "suspend, modify, restore, or grant an injunction during the pendency of the appeal upon such terms as to bond or otherwise as it considers proper."

Rule 62(e) relieves the State of the requirement altogether: when an appeal is taken by the State or an officer or agency, and enforcement is stayed, "no bond, obligation, or other security shall be required from the appellant."

A stay while a post-judgment motion is pending

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).

Four supporting motions — Rule 59, Rule 60, Rule 50 and Rule 52(b) — and a discretionary stay "on such conditions for the security of the adverse party as are proper".

The sequence to aim for is a motion filed inside the automatic ten days with a stay request attached, so that the discretionary stay is in place before the automatic one lapses.

If the judgment was a default, South Carolina applies good cause before judgment and five grounds after. See setting aside a South Carolina default judgment.

Statutory stays, and who to ask

Rule 62(f) is more restrictive than it first appears:

Stay According to Statute. The provisions of this Rule 62 shall be considered as cumulative to and not superseding the right of any party to a stay of execution accorded by statute; except that the time limits and provision for supersedeas bond provided by this Rule 62 shall apply in all proceedings for stay of execution or order of supersedeas.

A statutory right to a stay survives, but Rule 62's time limits and bond requirement are imported into all stay proceedings. A statute offering a stay on easier terms does not escape the bond.

Rule 62(g) preserves the appellate court's power but directs the order of asking: an application "should first be made to the trial court under Rule 62(c) or (d)", and may go first to an appellate court only "when such application is not practicable."

Going straight to the Court of Appeals without first asking the trial judge is the wrong order.

Rule 62(h) covers a Rule 54(b) judgment on fewer than all claims: the court may stay enforcement until later judgments enter.

How the judgment is enforced

S.C. 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 as provided by law. In the aid of the judgment or execution, the judgment creditor or his successor in interest when that interest appears of record, may examine any person, including the judgment debtor, in the manner provided in these rules for obtaining discovery.

The instrument is a writ of execution. The procedure is "as provided by law" — the statutes, not the rules, which is where exemptions and the mechanics of a levy live.

The examination is the part the rules govern. It runs "in the manner provided in these rules for obtaining discovery", so the ordinary discovery machinery applies, and it may be had from any person, including you, by the creditor or by a successor in interest whose interest appears of record.

Where this connects

For the case itself, see the South Carolina motion to dismiss, where the test is the facts rather than the claim as pleaded, and South Carolina summary judgment — ten days out, two days to oppose.

On the front end, see answering a South Carolina summons: thirty days, and five defenses lost by not raising them.

How South Carolina compares

A short checklist

1. Count ten days from entry. Nothing issues before then.
2. If you are appealing, get the bond approved, not merely filed. Approval is what starts the stay.
3. Leave time for approval inside the ten days if you can.
4. Check whether your judgment is an accounting, injunction or receivership. Those are not stayed at all.
5. Move under Rule 59 or Rule 60 inside the ten days and ask for a Rule 62(b) stay in the same motion.
6. Ask the trial court before the appellate court — Rule 62(g) sets that order.
7. Expect post-judgment examination under the ordinary discovery rules, including of third parties.

Where these rules live

• Rule 62, SCRCP — Stay of proceedings to enforce a judgment
• Rule 69, SCRCP — Execution
• Rule 60, SCRCP — 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.