Court of Cassation, No. 16-22.112

Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 28 February 2018, No. 16-22.112

Judicial chronology:

Paris Court of Appeal, 12 May 2015, No. 15/04341

Paris Court of Appeal, 12 May 2015, No. 15/04331

Paris Court of Appeal, 30 June 2015, No. 15/10233

Paris Court of Appeal, 30 June 2015, No. 15/10232

Paris Court of Appeal, 12 April 2016, No. 11/20730

Paris Court of Appeal, 12 April 2016, No. 11/20732

Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 28 February 2018, No. 16-22.126

Paris Court of Appeal, 14 January 2020

SOCIÉTÉ FG HEMISPHERE ASSOCIATES LLC

vs.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

On the first ground, taken in its first part:

In view of article 1699 of the Civil Code;

Whereas, according to the judgment under appeal, the Democratic Republic of Congo concluded an agreement for the construction and financing of a high-voltage line with the company Energoinvest, which, after initiating arbitration proceedings for the recovery of unpaid debts, assigned its claim to the company FG Hemisphere Associates LLC; whereas the Democratic Republic of Congo brought an action for annulment against the award handed down in Paris, ordering it to pay various sums for which the company FG Hemisphere Associates LLC obtained enforcement (in French Exequatur) ;

Whereas, in order to declare inadmissible the disputed request for withdrawal (retrait litigieux) filed by the Democratic Republic of Congo, the judgment holds that the mission of the Court of appeal, referred pursuant to articles 1520 and 1525 of the Code of Civil Procedure, is limited to the examination of the grounds listed by these texts, so that the application which aims, after an investigation of the merits of the case, at the release of the Republic of Congo by the payment to the assignee of the transfer price and various accessories, is not included in this mission;

That in so ruling, while the exercise of the disputed request for withdrawal affects the enforcement of the award, the Court of appeal violated the above-mentioned text;

FOR THESE REASONS and without having to rule on the other grounds:

REVERSES AND ANNULS, in its entirety, the judgement handed down on 12 April 2016, between the parties, by the Court of appeal of Paris; 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 Paris Court of appeal, otherwise composed;

Orders FG Hemisphere Associates LLC to pay the costs;

In view of article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure, dismisses its request and orders it to pay the Democratic Republic of Congo the sum of EUR 3,000;

States that upon the requests of the Public Prosecutor before the Court of Cassation, the present decision will be transmitted to be transcribed in the margin or following the quashed decision;

Thus, concluded and judged by the Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, and pronounced by the Chairman in his public hearing of twenty eight February two thousand eighteen.