A stay of execution of a judgment does not come automatically with filing an appeal. A party who lost in court and is pressing on to the next instance must ask for it expressly and show a good reason to depart from the general rule. A decision by Justice Yehiel Kasher of the Supreme Court, reported by Bizportal on October 30, 2026, shows how high the bar is. A car glass garage in Petah Tikva, which according to the report had not paid rent since January 2026, asked to halt its eviction until its appeal was decided, and the request was denied.
What happened in the case
According to the report, the lease ran from January 2019 to the end of 2023, with an option to extend until 2028. The lower courts found that the option had not been exercised: the tenant gave no notice and did not pay as required. The parties also disagree on whether they agreed on a new lease, for two years or for four.
In the meantime, the owners sold the garage. In the sale contract they undertook to deliver it vacant, and liquidated damages were set at NIS 3,000 plus VAT for each day of delay, starting in March 2026. According to Bizportal, that comes to about NIS 100,000 a month. The eviction suit was filed in April 2026. The Magistrates' Court ordered the tenant to vacate in early August 2026 and awarded NIS 15,000 in costs against it.
The tenant appealed to the District Court and asked it to stay the eviction. The District Court granted the request in part: the eviction was postponed to early November 2026, on condition that the rent was paid by early October. The tenant was not satisfied with that and filed an application for leave to appeal (bakashat reshut ir'ur) with the Supreme Court, Leave for Civil Appeal 38936-10-26.
How the Supreme Court weighed the motion to stay execution
The tenant argued that the eviction would seriously harm its business. Justice Kasher examined the request under the two accepted tests, the chances of the appeal and the balance of convenience. He noted that the tenant operates another garage in Rehovot and had already signed a new lease in Petah Tikva starting in early October 2026. According to the report, the court held that the balance of convenience "clearly favors the property owners," and the tenant's lack of good faith regarding payments also weighed against it. The request was denied, and no costs were awarded.
The report also noted that in an application for leave to appeal, where there is no automatic right of appeal, the chances of the proceeding are examined with even greater caution. In other words, a party that has already obtained a partial stay at one level and asks the Supreme Court for more starts from a difficult position.
The rule: an appeal does not halt enforcement
The decision is not unusual. The rule, now set out in Regulation 145(a) of the Civil Procedure Regulations, is that filing an appeal does not stay execution of the judgment. The Supreme Court restated this in a decision by Justice Alex Stein dated July 10, 2022 (Civil Appeal 4603/22), which quoted earlier case law: a party that has won is entitled to enjoy the fruits of its victory without waiting for the end of the appeal.
The balance of convenience is a comparison of two harms. Kol Zchut lists the considerations: whether the defendant would suffer harm that cannot be undone if it complies with the judgment and the appeal ultimately succeeds, what the chances of the appeal are, and what harm each side would suffer, the defendant if no stay is granted and the plaintiff if one is. Low chances tip the scales against a stay.
To depart from the rule, the applicant must show that the chances of the appeal are particularly good and that the balance of convenience favors it. According to the same decision, the balance of convenience takes precedence, and the court may decide on that basis alone without addressing the chances of the appeal. That is exactly what happened in the garage case.
Stay of execution of a money judgment, and stay of an eviction
With a money judgment, the starting point is that a payment does not create an irreversible situation: if the appeal succeeds, the money is returned. In the 2022 decision, the Supreme Court explained that the burden is on the applicant to prove that the case is exceptional and that there is a real risk the money will not be recovered, for example because the winning party's financial condition would not allow the status quo to be restored, or because there is a concern that the money will be moved abroad. An affidavit with detailed facts and figures is required, and a general claim of financial hardship will not suffice.
With an eviction from property, the picture is more complex. Kol Zchut gives a familiar example: if the defendant vacates the property and the plaintiff sells it, it may be impossible to restore the status quo even if the appeal succeeds. Even so, as the garage case shows, that argument weakens considerably when the applicant has a real alternative, is not paying, and the delay imposes on the other side a financial loss that grows every day. We discuss eviction of tenants and lease disputes in more detail on our real estate disputes page.
Before filing a motion to stay execution
According to Kol Zchut, as long as no appeal has been filed, the motion goes to the court that gave the judgment, and once an appeal has been filed, to the court hearing it. If an Enforcement and Collection (Hotza'a LaPo'al) file is already open, the debtor may also ask the enforcement registrar to suspend the proceedings.
A party seeking a stay must come with a factual foundation: what will actually happen if the judgment is enforced, why it could not be put right later, and what the appeal rests on. The party's conduct during the proceedings is examined as well. In the garage case, the District Court made the postponement conditional on payment of the rent, and the Supreme Court held the nonpayment against the tenant.
The winning party has work to do too. For the court to see both sides of the balance, it should present the harm the delay causes it, such as the liquidated damages the garage owners could have owed the buyer. You can read about appeals and the stages of a civil case on our civil litigation page.
Anyone who has received a judgment and is considering an appeal, or who has won a case and faces a motion to stay its enforcement, is welcome to contact us, in Modiin or Tel Aviv, for a review of the specific case.
Questions and answers
Does filing an appeal stay execution of the judgment?
No. Under the rule set out in Regulation 145(a) of the Civil Procedure Regulations, as the Supreme Court noted in Civil Appeal 4603/22, filing an appeal does not stay execution of the judgment. A party who wants enforcement put on hold until the appeal is decided must file a motion for a stay of execution and persuade the court that a stay is justified.
When will a court stay execution of a money judgment?
Only in exceptional cases. According to Supreme Court case law, the assumption is that a payment does not create an irreversible situation, because the money will be returned if the appeal succeeds. The applicant must show, in an affidavit with detailed figures, a real risk that the money will not be recovered, for example because of the winning party's financial condition or a concern that the money will be moved abroad.
Where is a motion to stay execution of a judgment filed?
According to Kol Zchut, as long as no appeal has been filed, the motion goes to the court that gave the judgment, and once an appeal has been filed, to the court hearing it. If an Enforcement and Collection (Hotza'a LaPo'al) file is already open, the debtor may also ask the enforcement registrar to suspend the proceedings.
Source: Bizportal (Hebrew), 30.10.2026; Supreme Court, Civil Appeal 4603/22 (Hebrew), 10.7.2022; Kol Zchut: Request for a stay of execution of a judgment (Hebrew), checked 8.11.2026
First published in Hebrew. Read the Hebrew original