Bankruptcy Law

The bankruptcy judge may, provided the application for admission is admissible, decide on the admission of claims, in accordance with Article L. 624-2 of the Commercial Code. While he may admit a claim that predates the opening judgment, such as repayments of loans granted to a debtor prior to the insolvency procedure , he is not competent to rule on a later claim .
The court in charge of the veri …

Admission of the claim

The bankruptcy judge may, provided the application for admission is admissible, decide on the admission of claims, in accordance with Article L. 624-2 of the Commercial Code. While he may admit a claim that predates the opening judgment, such as repayments of loans granted to a debtor prior to the insolvency procedure , he is not competent to rule on a later claim .

The court in charge of the verification and admission of claims is not required, when ruling on a claim, to follow the proposal of the legal representative . It may therefore decide to admit a claim as non-privileged only, even if the legal representative has not, prior to the referral, raised any discussion on the privilege invoked in the statement of claim , or admit a claim whose rejection was proposed . It may also reduce the penalty clause in the event of default by the borrower, if it considers it manifestly excessive . The bankruptcy judge, when seized of a declaration of unpaid contributions, in addition to late increases and prosecution costs, may decide to admit only the claim for contributions when its accessories are remitted ipso jure, pursuant to Article L. 243-5(6) of the Social Security Code . It may also admit a claim for an amount different from that provisionally declared when the amending declaration was made within the time-limit set by the court, pursuant to Article L. 624-1 of the Commercial Code, for the establishment of the statement of claims, for a sum lower than the provisional declaration . If no writ of enforcement has been issued at the time of its declaration, an URSSAF (Social Security Contribution Collection Office) claim can only be admitted on a provisional basis for the amount declared, and its final establishment must be carried out within the time-limit, under penalty of foreclosure . The fact that the URSSAF declares its claims provisionally, even though it has already served constraints before the opening judgment of the insolvency procedure, does not lead to their rejection since, by hypothesis, they were definitively established by enforceable titles before the expiry of the time-limit given to the judicial representative for the verification of the liabilities .  The lack of precision as to the provisional nature of the URSSAF's declaration of claims cannot have the effect of invalidating it . Similarly, the bankruptcy judge cannot limit the admission of a tax claim to the provisional amount declared without taking into account the writs of enforcement notified after the debtor's opening judgment in order to arrive at the definitive establishment of the claim within the time-limit fixed by the court . Indeed, the claim declared by the Trésor cannot be provisionally admitted if it was the subject of a writ of enforcement at the time of its declaration .

Since Article R. 622-23, 2° of the Commercial Code only requires the indication of the methods of calculation of the interest whose course has not yet been determined in cases where the amount cannot be calculated on the day of the declaration of the claim , the absence of indication of these methods does not prevent the admission of the claim by the bankruptcy judge when the declaration included the amount of the interest to be paid . Consequently, when admitting a claim to the debtor's liabilities, the bankruptcy judge does not have to specify the methods of calculating the interest due, if they are already indicated in the statement of claim, nor does he have to reserve the possibility of a subsequent modification of the amount of this claim due to events likely to influence the course of the interest . On the other hand, it may limit the admission of a claim to the principal where the methods of calculating the interest due have not been specified by the declarant . The creditor is not obliged to distinguish, in his statement of claim, the amount of interest due from the amount of the outstanding capital, so that the bankruptcy judge may decide to admit the claim for interest separately and substitute for the declared amount the calculation methods resulting from a loan agreement . In addition, when the court of appeal postpones ruling on an admitted claim, after having invited the parties to refer the nullity of the interest calculation clause to the competent court, but none of them refers the matter to that court within one month, the request for nullity should be considered inadmissible and the ordinance admitting the claim should be confirmed . Similarly, a debtor who does not justify having submitted a complaint to the tax authorities or the competent court concerning the calculation of the tax base cannot challenge the admission of the State's claim by the court responsible for verifying claims .

The rejection of an application for discharge or reduction made by the debtor against the request of the tax authorities, which puts an end to the pending proceedings brought by the debtor, also results in the admission of the claim .

Finally, a debtor who has participated in the verification of claims without raising any objection with the legal representative does not have to be heard or called by the bankruptcy judge when he pronounces the admission of a claim , and may not appeal against this decision .

Cass. com., 11 May 2010, LawLex202100002420JBJ (RJ).

Cass. 2e civ., 16 September 2010, LawLex202100002473JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 12 June 2019, LawLex202100002828JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 10 March 2004, LawLex202100003146JBJ (RJ) ; 29 May 2001, LawLex202100003144JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 2 November 2016, LawLex202100002412JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 8 March 2017, LawLex202100002413JBJ (LJ).

Cass. com., 7 November 2018, LawLex202100002414JBJ (S) ; 13 February 2019, LawLex202100002415JBJ (S).

Cass. com., 28 February 2018, LawLex202100002417JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 23 September 2014, LawLex202100002373JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 3 February 2015, LawLex202100003097JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 8 March 1994, LawLex202100002378JBJ (RJ); 1st April 2003, LawLex202100002380JBJ (LJ).

Cass. com., 24 March 2015, LawLex202100003096JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 3 October 2000, LawLex202100002351JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 4 February 1992, LawLex202100002353JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 19 May 1998, LawLex202100002379JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 31 January 2017, LawLex202100003151JBJ (LJ), holding that the letter by which a legal representative invites a social security organization to produce the writ of execution that establishes its claim and specifies that, failing that, it will propose its rejection, does not amount to a letter of contestation within the meaning of Article L. 622-27 of the Commercial Code, so that the creditor's failure to respond does not prohibit the court from pronouncing the admission of the claim.

Cass. com., 5 April 2016, LawLex202100002419JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 27 January 2015, LawLex202100003108JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 5 October 2010, LawLex202100003152JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com., 27 March 2007, LawLex202100003150JBJ (RJ).

Cass. com, 11 December 2019, LawLex202100003147JBJ (RJ). See also. Cass. com., 13 November 2007, LawLex202100003148JBJ (RJ), considering that the URSSAF does not have to make a new declaration of claim to the legal representative, since it has denounced to him the constraints served on the debtor company within the time-limit for the final establishment of claims.

Bankruptcy Law

202. Admission of the claim

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202. Admission of the claim

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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