Award enforceability and default consequences: no substitution of debtor, title passed on default, and the award remained executable.

An award requiring payment to a third-party creditor or an effective discharge of the opposite party's liability does not relieve the original obligors unless the creditor clearly accepts a substituted debtor; partial payment and informal correspondence are insufficient. Clause 7 of the award, read as a whole, shows that on default the respondents were to regain both possession and proprietary title, not possession alone. The award created enforceable obligations and was therefore executable, not merely declaratory. The default clause was not treated as penal, so no relief was available on that ground.

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Issues: (i) Whether the appellants were relieved of their liability under the award by the alleged co-operation or recognition of the Board; (ii) whether, on default in payment, clause 7 of the award transferred only possession or also title to the respondents; (iii) whether the award was merely declaratory and therefore inexecutable; and (iv) whether the default clause was penal so as to entitle the appellants to relief.

Issue (i): Whether the appellants were relieved of their liability under the award by the alleged co-operation or recognition of the Board.

Analysis: The arrangement required the appellants either to make payment to the Board within the stipulated period or to secure an effective discharge of the respondents' liability. The correspondence and acceptance of partial payments did not establish any formal recognition of the appellants as substituted debtors. The Board never agreed to accept the appellants in place of the respondents, and mere receipt of money did not terminate the respondents' primary liability.

Conclusion: The appellants were not discharged from their obligation, and the respondents' liability to the Board was not shown to have been extinguished.

Issue (ii): whether, on default in payment, clause 7 of the award transferred only possession or also title to the respondents.

Analysis: Clause 7, read as a whole, restricted the appellants from dealing with the property as owners and described their possession during the interregnum as being in trust. That structure showed that the parties intended the respondents to regain not merely possession but the beneficial and proprietary interest if the appellants failed to satisfy the Board's dues or secure a discharge.

Conclusion: On default, both possession and title passed to the respondents.

Issue (iii): whether the award was merely declaratory and therefore inexecutable.

Analysis: The language of the award did not merely pronounce abstract rights. It created enforceable obligations and contemplated execution if the appellants failed to perform. A decree or award need not use express words directing execution in order to be executable.

Conclusion: The award was executable and not merely declaratory.

Issue (iv): whether the default clause was penal so as to entitle the appellants to relief.

Analysis: The clause was part of a decree passed in terms of the award, not a penal stipulation in a compromise decree. Relief against such a term could not be granted merely on the footing that it operated harshly. The authorities relied upon concerning compromise decrees did not apply.

Conclusion: The default clause was not penal and no relief was available to the appellants on that ground.

Final Conclusion: The award and the order under execution were upheld, and the appellants' challenge failed in all material respects.

Ratio Decidendi: Where an award requires payment to a third-party creditor within a fixed time or an effective discharge of the opposite party's liability, partial payment or informal correspondence does not substitute a new debtor or extinguish the original liability unless there is clear acceptance by the creditor; on default, the award must be construed as a whole to determine whether proprietary title as well as possession passes, and such an award is executable according to its terms.

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