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Powers of court in certain actions by owners to recover possession of the goods.
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13.—(1) Where, in any case to which the last foregoing section applies, an owner commences an action to enforce a right to recover possession of the goods from a hirer after one-third of the hire-purchase price has been paid or tendered as aforesaid, the owner shall not take any step after the action has been commenced to enforce payment of any sum due under the hire-purchase agreement, or under any contract of guarantee relating thereto, except by claiming the sum in the action.
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(2) Subject to such exceptions as may be made by rules of court, all the parties to the agreement and any guarantor shall be made parties to the action.
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(3) Pending the hearing of the action the Court shall, in addition to any other powers, have power, upon the application of the owner, to make such orders as the Court thinks just for the purpose of protecting the goods from damage or depreciation, including orders restricting or prohibiting the user of the goods or giving directions as to their custody.
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(4) On the hearing of the action the Court may, without prejudice to any other power—
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(a) make an order for the specific delivery of all the goods to the owner,
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(b) make an order for the specific delivery of all the goods to the owner and postpone the operation of the order on condition that the hirer or any guarantor pays the unpaid balance of the hire-purchase price at such times and in such amounts as the Court, having regard to the means of the hirer and any guarantor, thinks just, and subject to the fulfilment of such other conditions by the hirer or a guarantor as the Court thinks just, or
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(c) make an order for the transfer to the hirer of the owner's title to a part of the goods and for the specific delivery of the remainder of the goods to the owner, subject, if the Court thinks fit, to the condition that the hirer or any guarantor pays to the owner within a specified time such further amount in respect of the hire-purchase price as the Court, having regard to the amount already paid in respect thereof, the price of that part, the use which the hirer has had of the remainder of the goods and their depreciation in value, thinks just.
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(5) No order shall be made under paragraph (b) of the last foregoing subsection unless the hirer satisfies the Court that the goods are in his possession or control at the time when the order is made.
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(6) Where the Court makes an order under paragraph (c) of subsection (4) of this section subject to a condition, the following provisions shall have effect in relation to that part of the order which relates to the transfer of the owner's title to any goods to the hirer—
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(a) that part shall not, in any event, come into operation before the condition is complied with,
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(b) if the condition is not complied with, the Court shall revoke that part and make such further order in relation to the goods as it thinks just;
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(c) if the condition is complied with, that part shall come into operation upon such compliance.
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(7) Where damages have been awarded against the owner in the proceedings, the Court may treat the hirer as having paid in respect of the hire-purchase price, in addition to the actual amount paid, the amount of the damages, or such part thereof as the Court thinks fit, and thereupon the damages shall accordingly be remitted either in whole or in part.
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(8) In this section the expression “order for the specific delivery of the goods” means an order for the delivery of the goods to the owner without giving the hirer an option to pay their value, and the word “price” in relation to any goods means such part of the hire-purchase price as is assigned to those goods by the note or memorandum of the hire-purchase agreement, or, if no such assignment is made, such part of the hire-purchase price as the Court may determine.
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(9) If at any time before the hearing of an action to which this section applies the owner has recovered possession of a part of the goods, the references in subsection (4) hereof to all the goods shall be construed as a reference to all the goods which the owner has not recovered, and, if the parties have not agreed upon an adjustment of the hire-purchase price in respect of the goods so recovered, the Court may for the purposes of paragraphs (b) and (c) of subsection (4) hereof make such reduction of the hire-purchase price and of the unpaid balance thereof as the Court thinks just.
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(10) Where an owner has recovered a part of the goods let under a hire-purchase agreement, and the recovery was effected in contravention of the last foregoing section, the provisions of this section shall not apply in relation to any action by the owner to recover the remainder of the goods.
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