The Court of Cassation has just confirmed the enforceable nature of notice served by a bailiff. In the case at hand, the tenant of any commercial premises had served notice by mistake, and had then tried to serve a request for renewal of the lease, annulling and replacing the previous notice. The lessor refused renewal of the lease, without any compensation for eviction.
The Court of Appeal firstly considered that the tenant could not claim any error, as confirmed by the third civil chambers in a ruling of 5 June 2013. Indeed, notice served in error by a bailiff, instead of leading to a request for renewal, cannot be retracted without the consent of the person on whom it was served: "However, whereas having rightly held, for right and adopted grounds, that the invalidity of bailiff deeds was governed by the provisions which cover procedural deeds and that the invalidity of any notice could only be declared on the ground that the bailiff acted outside of its remit, or that the deed was issued in error and in the absence of any consent, the court of appeal, which indicated that the bailiff had improperly performed his mandate, deduced that the lack of intention by Mac Donald's did not constitute any irregularity in substance on the basis of article 117 of the Civil Code and, on this ground alone, legally justified its decision to accept that the deed of 3 June 2003 was enforceable. "
To consult the ruling, click here.