Bankruptcy Law

Article L. 624-14 of the Commercial Code, applicable to the court-supervised liquidation procedure by virtue of Article L. 641-14, grants the seller a right of retention on goods not delivered or dispatched to the debtor or to a third party acting on his behalf. The right of retention, which does not confer a privileged right on its holder and does not constitute either a privileged claim or a sec …

Retention of goods by the seller

Article L. 624-14 of the Commercial Code, applicable to the court-supervised liquidation procedure by virtue of Article L. 641-14, grants the seller a right of retention on goods not delivered or dispatched to the debtor or to a third party acting on his behalf. The right of retention, which does not confer a privileged right on its holder and does not constitute either a privileged claim or a security, remains enforceable against the liquidation procedure even if its holder does not mention it in his claim declarations , since the text does not make its exercise subject to such a formality . 

The seller may exercise his right of retention when he has remained in possession of the goods for which the balance of the price has not been paid, even though the contract reserves ownership until full payment of the price . In the absence of such a clause, the seller's right of retention can in no way be assimilated to a maintenance of his right of ownership over the goods retained, even in the event of persistent contractual non-performance by the debtor . Furthermore, the exercise of the right of retention does not degenerate into abuse simply because the purchaser has been wound up due to insufficient assets, and the sub-purchasers are acting in good faith .

The seller of standing or felled timber has a right of retention on timber which, at the date of the buyer's opening court ruling, is on the cuttings bed or on designated storage sites in the forest . Similarly, a printer who fails to obtain payment for all the goods ordered may exercise his right of retention on those goods of which he has retained possession and which are subject to a retention-of-title clause, without being subject to the reclaim of ownership procedure .

CA Paris, 17 April 2008, LawLex202200003640JBJ (RJ).

CA Versailles, 26 March 1998, LawLex202200003670JBJ (LJ).

CA Toulouse, 25 October 2001, LawLex202200003676JBJ (LJ).

CA Versailles, 26 March 1998, cited above.

Cass. 1re civ., 24 September 2009, LawLex202200000202JBJ (LJ).

Cass. com., 19 December 1995, LawLex202200003644JBJ (RJ) ; CA Paris, 17 April 2008, cited above.

CA Paris, 2 February 2001, LawLex202200003681JBJ (LJ).

Bankruptcy Law

868. Retention of goods by the seller

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868. Retention of goods by the seller

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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