Levages Prestations Services v. France

Information Note on the Court’s case-law No.

October 1996

Levages Prestations Services v. France - 21920/93

Judgment 23.10.1996

Article 6

Civil proceedings

Article 6-1

Access to court

Civil appeal on points of law declared inadmissible by Court of Cassation of its own motion on ground that the impugned judgment of the Court of Appeal referred to an earlier judgment of that court which had not been produced: no violation

[This summary is extracted from the Court’s official reports (Series A or Reports of Judgments and Decisions). Its formatting and structure may therefore differ from the Case-Law Information Note summaries.]

I.APPLICABILITY OF ARTICLE 6 § 1 OF THE CONVENTION

Case-law reiterated: a judgment of the Court of Cassation may rebound in different degrees on position of person concerned.

In instant case, outcome of appeal could have had a bearing on applicant company's debt.

Conclusion: Article 6 § 1 applicable (unanimously).

II.COMPLIANCE WITH ARTICLE 6 § 1

Article 979 of the New Code of Civil Procedure ("NCCP") only required expressly production of the decision appealed against, but, under the Court of Cassation's case-law, that had to be understood as applying not only to the decision appealed against, but also to decisions that were its necessary complement - there could be no doubt that that old and readily accessible case-law was available to a member of the Conseil d'Etat and Court of Cassation Bar - applicant company's counsel had thus been in a position to ascertain what steps he had to take to bring appeal on points of law, both from wording of Article 979 NCCP and, if necessary, with the aid of the case-law, which was sufficiently clear and coherent.

Given special nature of Court of Cassation's role, Court was able to accept that procedure followed in Court of Cassation could be more formal, especially as in proceedings with compulsory representation parties would be represented by a member of the Conseil d'Etat and Court of Cassation Bar - moreover, appeal to Court of Cassation had been made in instant case after applicant company's claims had been heard by both a commercial court and a court of appeal, each of which had had full jurisdiction.

Regard being had to all the proceedings in the domestic courts, applicant company's right of access to a court had not been infringed.

Conclusion: no violation (six votes to three).

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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