Short answer. No. Execution by motion is available only within five years from the date of entry of the judgment. After that, and before the statute of limitations bars it, the judgment must be enforced by an independent action to revive it — and the revived judgment can then be executed by motion within five years of its own entry.
What the law says
A final and executory judgment or order may be executed on motion within five years from the date of its entry. After the lapse of such time, and before it is barred by the statute of limitations, a judgment may be enforced by action.
Rule 39, Section 6 — Execution by motion or by independent action. Read the full provision →
The five-year window for motions
The section opens with the cheap and fast route: A final and executory judgment or order may be executed on motion within five years from the date of its entry. Within that window, enforcement stays inside the same case — the prevailing party files a motion, and the court that rendered the judgment issues the writ. Note where the clock starts: from the date of its entry, not from the date the decision was promulgated or the date you learned of it. Entry marks the judgment's finality, and everything in this section is counted from there.
After five years: a new action to revive
Once the window closes, the motion is no longer available, but the judgment is not yet dead: After the lapse of such time, and before it is barred by the statute of limitations, a judgment may be enforced by action. Enforcement now requires a fresh lawsuit — an action to revive the judgment — with the filing, service and process that any action entails. The defendant in that suit is not entitled to reopen the merits of the original case; the action exists to give the old judgment new life, not to retry what was already decided. But it costs time and money that a timely motion would not have.
The revived judgment gets its own clock
The section completes the cycle: The revived judgment may also be enforced by motion within five years from the date of its entry and thereafter by action before it is barred by the statute of limitations. In other words, a successful revival resets the machinery — five years of enforcement by motion, counted from the entry of the revived judgment, and enforcement by action after that, up to the limitations bar. What no amount of reviving changes is the outer boundary: once the statute of limitations has run, the judgment can no longer be enforced by either route.
The practical lesson: do not sit on a judgment
Every step outward from the original entry makes enforcement slower and more expensive — a motion inside five years, a full lawsuit after, nothing at all once limitations has run. If you hold an unenforced judgment, establish the date of entry first, because every computation depends on it, then move while the motion route is still open. If five years have already passed, see a lawyer about an action to revive without further delay: the limitations period keeps running while you wait, and the section gives no way back once it lapses.