Court of Cassation, No. 15-15.850

Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 6 July 2016, No. 15-15.850

Qatar Technical Support (QTS)

Mr. X (liquidator)

Vs.

Qatari Arabian Construction Company (QACC)

THE COURT OF CASATION, FIRST CIVIL CHAMBER, delivered the following judgment:

Whereas, according to the challenged judgments, an award handed down in Paris on 16 May 2013 declared the company Qatar Technical Support (QTS) liable for various sums against the Qatari Arabian Construction Company (QACC); that, by act of 1 August 2013, the former filed an action for annulment of the award; that a Qatari judgment of 25 February 2014 pronounced the dissolution and liquidation of the company QTS and appointed its liquidator; that a first judgment, rendered on deferral of an order of the state prosecutor, declared admissible the pleadings filed by QACC on 14 May 2014; that the second dismissed the action for annulment brought by QTS ;

On the interruption of the proceedings, raised in defence:

Whereas it appears from the judgment and from the productions that a Qatari judgment of 25 February 2014 placed the company QTS in judicial liquidation and appointed Mr. X…, liquidator; that judgments of 28 June and 24 August 2015 suspended the enforcement of the decision declaring the company bankrupt and appointing an administrator; that on 26 April 2016, the Qatar Court of Appeal annulled the decision declaring the company bankrupt; that as a result, Mr. X… is still acting as liquidator; that there is therefore no reason to interrupt the proceedings;

On the ground raised ex officio, after notice given to the parties under the terms of Article 1015 of the Code of Civil Procedure:

In view of Articles 2412 of the Civil Code, 509, 909 and 911 of the Code of Civil Procedure;

Whereas it follows from the first two of these texts that the recognition of a foreign judgment in the French legal system requires control of the indirect international jurisdiction of the foreign judge based on the connection of the dispute to the court seised, its conformity with international substantive and procedural public orders, as well as the absence of fraud;

Whereas, in order to declare QACC’s conclusions admissible, the first judgment holds that the proceedings were interrupted as of the date of the dissolution and liquidation of QTS and were not resumed until 6 November 2014, the date on which the liquidator signified its submissions of voluntary intervention in the resumption of proceedings;

That in so ruling, when, without an enforcement (in French Exequatur) judgment, the decision pronouncing the opening of the judicial liquidation abroad could not produce any effect, so that the submissions of the QACC company were necessarily inadmissible, as late, the Court of Appeal violated the aforementioned texts;

And given that the cassation proceedings that have been instituted lead to the annulment, the consequence of the second judgment, which rejects the appeal for annulment of the award, is the continuation of the second judgment;

FOR THESE REASONS, without it being necessary to rule on the means of appeal:

REVERSE AND ANNUL, in its entirety, the judgements handed down on 6 January 2015 and 10 March 2015 between the parties by the Paris Court of Appeal; return, consequently, the proceedings and the parties to their status quo ante and, for the proceedings to be determined in accordance with the law, transmit them to the Court of Paris Court of Appeal, otherwise composed;

Orders the Qatari Arabian Construction Company to pay the costs;

In view of Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure, rejects its request and condemns her to pay the company Qatar Technical Support the sum of 5,000 euros;

States that at the request of the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, the present ruling will be transmitted to be transcribed in the margin or following the reversed decisions;

Thus done and judged by the Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, and pronounced by the president in its public hearing of the sixth of July two thousand and sixteen.