Collo vs McDo

Institutions

The court of appeal

The second level of jurisdiction. Unlike the Court of Cassation, it retries everything: the facts and the law.

In brief

  • 36 courts of appeal in France.
  • Devolutive effect (Art. 561 CPC): “the appeal brings the matter adjudicated back before the appeal court so that it may be ruled on afresh in fact and in law”.
  • Limit (Art. 562 CPC): the appeal only refers to the court the heads of the judgment expressly challenged in the notice of appeal.
  • Outcome: the court upholds the judgment, reverses it (in whole or in part, and rules afresh), or annuls it for procedural defect.
  • Its judgments may be subject to an appeal to the Court of Cassation, which in principle has no suspensive effect in civil matters.

The Court of Appeal is the last judge of the facts. It is before it that evidence is argued, that expert reports are ordered, that accounts are reconstructed. What it has found in the exercise of its sovereign assessment will not be reopened.

This is what gives weight to the judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal of 8 March 2000. In holding that the orders to pay had been served in bad faith and that the termination was wrongful, the court made a finding of fact — and the Court of Cassation (France's highest court), in dismissing the appeal two years later, never called it into question.

Sources

External sources.

  1. Appealing against a judgment — service-public.fr
  2. Code of Civil Procedure, Articles 561 et seq. (devolutive effect) — Légifrance

Where this comes up in the case file

ArticleGood faith and the termination clauseDocument in the case fileJudgment of 8 March 2000 — Paris Court of Appeal

Other glossary entries — Institutions

The European Court of Human RightsThe Court of CassationThe commercial courtThe Court of Justice of the European UnionThe EUIPOThe National Financial Prosecutor's Office

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