Initiating a civil lawsuit when not know the address of the defendant

Initiating a civil lawsuit when not know the address of the defendant

 When initiating a civil lawsuit, the plaintiff shall provide the address of the defendant. The provision of address of the defendant is not a simple problem, how to verify the address of defendant to initiate a lawsuit when not know the address of the defendant.

 Currently, in many cases of contractual disputes relating to loan, inheritance, divorce etc, at the time of the petitioner filing the petition, the defendant being absent from its locality before filing petition happens a lot. Some court accept the settlement for this case, but some court disagree hearing the cases, return the petition in accordance with the provisions of Article 169 of the Civil Procedure Code, saying that the plaintiff does not provide the address of the defendant in the case.

 From practice above shows that the application of the law in the courts on the above cases is not uniform, affecting the rule of law and caused much annoyance to the person concerned.

 In some cases, when accepting the petition is accompanied certification proving the defendant”s place of residence of the local authorities, settlement practices of court is classified in following two cases:

 The first case: During the settlement of the case, the judge shall verify and found that defendant in the case was absence from the locality before the court’s receipt, so the judge decided to suspend the case (pursuant to Article 192 paragraph 1 point i of the Civil Procedure Code) and return the petition to the concerned person (pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article 169 of the Civil Procedure Code) on the grounds that the petitioner did not provide the new address of the defendant; guide the petitioner shall submit the request to announce the search of persons being absent from its residence as stipulated by Chapter XXII of the Civil Procedure Code .

 The second case: In the process of settling the case, the judge shall verify and found that the defendant in the case of absence from its locality after the court’s receipt, then the Court of First Instance shall continue to hear the case in absence of defendant in accordance with Article 199 of the Civil Procedure Code  in pursuant to Paragraph 6, Article 9 of Resolution 05/2012/NQ-HĐTP dated 03 Dec 2012 "For the case of the petition, plaintiff have fully recorded in detail and correct address of the defendant, the person whose rights and obligations involved in accordance with clause 2 of Article 164 of the Civil Procedure Code, the guidance in Article 5 of this Resolution and Form 01 attached to this resolution, but they do not have a stable residence, often change residence without notifying the new address to the petitioner, the court, in order to hide their address, avoid its obligations to the petitioner, the case is considered to be the defendant, who has the rights, obligations relating deliberately hidden addresses. Court shall proceed to resolve the case under general procedures».

 Therefore, initiating an civil lawsuit when not know the address of the defendant, the petitioner, plaintiff must carry out the procedure to get resident certificate in Ward People”s Committee, where the defendant resided before he/she left. In case of confirmation that he/she had left from the residence and it was unclear where to go, the court still accept and handle the case but it must carry out more procedures to declare that defendant was absent from the residence (publicized by newspapers as stipulated by law).

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