Introduction

Role of the parties

Role of judge

Contentious matters

Concept

Powers of the judge

Principle of adversarial proceedings

Non-contentious matters

Underlying principles of civil proceedings

Right to bring civil action

Abuse of the right to bring proceedings

Type of action

Concept of action

Interest in bringing proceedings

Standing

Rules governing action

Legal action

Initial claim

Counterclaim

Additional claim

Intervention

Incidental claim

Interruption of limitation period

Application to file suit (demande en justice)

Defense on the merits

Procedural objections (exceptions de procédure)

Procedural bars to admissibility (fins de non-recevoir)

Defenses

Nature of claim

Amount of the claim

Jurisdiction ratione materiae

Principles

Exceptional territorial jurisdiction

Extension of jurisdiction

Territorial jurisdiction

Competent court

Formal requirements

Substantive requirements

Presentation of the QPC (Question prioritaire de constitutionnalité)

Referral to Court of Cassation

Referral to Constitutional Council

Referral of the QPC

Investigation procedure

Conduct of hearing

Decision of the Constitutional Council

Proceedings before Constitutional Council

Priority question of constitutionality (QPC)

Simplified case preparation procedure

Participative procedure for case preparation purposes

Extra-judicial case preparation

Recourse to technical expert

Agreements on extra-judicial case preparation (mise en état)

Disclosure of exhibits

Production of documents

Exhibits

Common provisions for investigations

Rules specific to each investigation

Investigative measures

Disputes concerning private deeds (actes sous seing privé)

Forgery procedure against authentic instruments

Challenges to documentary evidence

Oath sworn as decisive evidence

Oath tendered by way of supplementation

Judicial oath

Administration of evidence

Hearings

Deliberations

Judgment

Formation

Judgment after adversarial proceedings

Judgment by default or judgment after trial

Contentious or non-contentious judgment

Judgment on the merits or provisional ruling (avant dire droit)

Combined judgment

Provisional judgment

Judgment in fast track proceedings

Types

Joinder and severance of proceedings

Interruption of proceedings

Suspension of proceedings

Discontinuance of proceedings (extinction)

Procedural incidents

Plea of lack of jurisdiction

Recusal/Dismissal for legitimate suspicion

Challenging the judge's competence

General rules

Voluntary intervention

Compulsory intervention

Joinder in proceedings (intervention)

Existence of a judgment

Same subject matter, cause, and parties

Authority of res judicata

General conditions of enforcement

Provisional enforcement

Grace period

Enforcement of the judgment

Bearing of costs

Order to pay non-recoverable costs

Verification/Recovery

Claims/Disputes

Costs and expenses

Ordinary remedies

Extraordinary remedies

Remedies

Judgments

Calculation of time-limits

Acts of judicial commissioners

Service of documents

Ordinary notification

Notification between lawyers

International notification

Place of notification

Notification

Communication by electronic means

Procedural acts

1. Ordinary Law of Civil Procedure

In the event of joint and several liability or indivisibility with respect to multiple parties, Article 552 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that an appeal filed by one of the parties preserves the right of appeal for the others, who may join the proceedings . An appeal against one party reserves for the appellant the option to call the other parties to the proceedings (Art. 552, para. 2, CPC) . The application of Article 552 does not require that the appellants have a common interest and support the same arguments . The court may also order ex officio the involvement of all interested parties (Art. 552, para. 3, CPC), and this involvement is not subject to the condition of the development of the dispute provided for in Article 555 of the Code of Civil Procedure .

In the event of indivisibility, Article 553 provides that the appeal by one has effect with respect to the others, even if they have not joined the proceedings, with the appeal against one being admissible only if all are called to the proceedings . In this case, the lapse of the appeal with respect to one of the respondents results in the inadmissibility of the appeal as a whole . The appeal lodged in due time against one of the parties preserves the appellant's right vis-à-vis the others and covers the irregularity or lateness of service, provided that all parties present in the first instance in this indivisible dispute are also involved in the appeal . The indivisible nature of the liquidation judgment implies declaring inadmissible the appeal filed by a commercial company that summoned only two of its creditors when the liquidation of assets concerning it was pronounced by a judgment, upon the writ of summons of four creditors . The requests for joint and several liability of the respondents by the appellants based on Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure and the actions for warranty among builders and the insurance company do not constitute a case of indivisibility .

Under Articles 554 and 555 of the Code of Civil Procedure, persons not present or represented in the proceedings may intervene on appeal . Provided they have an interest, persons who were neither parties nor represented in the first instance or who appeared in a different capacity  may intervene in the appeal . The assessment of the intervenor's interest in bringing proceedings and the sufficient connection that must exist between their claims and the original claims falls within the sovereign power of the trial courts . The principal intervention of a third party is admissible as long as it directly arises from the first instance claims of a party and their appeal . The voluntary intervenor cannot submit a new dispute to the Court of Appeal . Thus, a union may intervene in the appeal to seek compensation for the harm suffered by the profession it represents due to an employer's failure to comply with legal provisions relating to part-time work submitted to the first judges by an employee .

Article 555 allows for the summoning before the court of persons who were neither parties nor represented in the first instance, or who appeared in a different capacity, even for the purpose of condemnation, when the evolution of the dispute involves their implication . The evolution of the dispute refers to the revelation of a factual or legal circumstance arising from or after the judgment, modifying the legal aspects of the dispute . The mere fact that an intervening appellant only became aware during the appeal proceedings of a liquidation pronounced before the judgment, while the judicial liquidation is enforceable against all upon its publication, does not constitute an evolution of the dispute allowing them to summon a third party for the first time before the appellate court . The same applies to the opening of insolvency proceedings against a party after the first instance decision . The compulsory intervention on appeal of a spouse married under the community property regime is also inadmissible, as the judicial liquidation does not constitute a new element, with the claimant having sufficient elements to assess the opportunity to summon the spouse before the first judges from the outset of the proceedings . Finally, the inadmissibility of a claim presented on appeal by a person who was neither a party nor represented in the first instance is not a mandatory public policy provision, and the appellate judges cannot refuse to rule on such a claim if the interested party has not invoked the bar to proceedings .

Cass. 3e civ., 10 July 2002, LawLex202300014536JBJ; Cass. 2e civ., 8 October 1986, LawLex202300014519JBJ, considering that the party who files their notice of appeal and requests the docketing of the case jointly with the appellant, on the same date, is deemed to have joined the appeal proceedings of their co-obligor under the conditions of Article 552 of the Code of Civil Procedure; Cass. 1re civ., 10 July 2024, LawLex202400008704JBJ, which specifies that in the absence of an impossibility to simultaneously execute two decisions concerning the parties to the dispute, indivisibility, within the meaning of Article 533 of the Code of Civil Procedure, not being established, the appeal of one of the parties cannot have effect with regard to a defaulting party.

Cass. civ. 3e, 26 May 1992, LawLex202300014538JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ., 18 May 1988, LawLex202300014537JBJ, holding that the intervention of a company, represented in the first instance by another company, which does not assert before the court of appeal any separate right distinct from the latter, is inadmissible.

Cass. 3e civ., 15 December 2010, LawLex202300014563JBJ, considering that since the direct action of the injured third party against the liability insurer constitutes an autonomous action based on the right of this third party to compensation for their damage, they may, from the first instance, summon this insurer, so that the refusal of coverage enforced by the latter after the judgment does not alter the legal aspects of the dispute and does not constitute an evolution of the latter involving the impleading of this insurer.

Cass. 3e civ., 1 February 1978, LawLex202300014566JBJ.

Cass. 1re civ., 18 July 2000, LawLex202300014506JBJ, JCP E No 42, 2000, 1638; JCP No 50, 2006, II 10202, RIZZO; Bull. civ. I, No 217.

Cass. 2e civ., 17 October 2002, LawLex202300014527JBJ.

Cass. soc., 7 July 2004, LawLex202300014541JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 28 February 2006, LawLex202300014534JBJ, holding that under the combined application of Articles 332 and 555 of the Code of Civil Procedure, a Court of Appeal may only call persons other than the parties to the proceedings if the modification of the legal data of the dispute necessitates their involvement.

Cass. soc., 4 July 2018, LawLex202300014565JBJ; Cass. 2e civ., 13 November 2014, LawLex202300014553JB; 23 November 2006, LawLex202300014530JBJ.

Cass. 3e civ., 28 January 2009, LawLex202300014564JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 11 February 2021, LawLex202300014550JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 8 October 1986, LawLex202300014519JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 8 April 2004, LawLex202300014518JBJ.

Cass. com., 28 February 1989, LawLex202300014540JBJ.

Cass. 1re civ., 18 July 1995, LawLex202300014505JBJ, holding that pursuant to Article 552, para. 3, of the Code of Civil Procedure, a Court of Appeal may ex officio order the involvement of all third parties with a shared interest, provided there is a bond of solidarity or indivisibility between them and the other parties from the first instance, and this involvement is not required to meet the condition of the evolution of the dispute set out in Article 555 of the same code.

Cass. 2e civ., 23 October 1991, LawLex202300014531JBJ; Cass. 2e civ., 17 November 2022, LawLex202400008734JBJ; Cass. 1re civ., 10 July 2024, LawLex202400008704JBJ

Cass. 2e civ., 19 March 2020, LawLex202400000696JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 7 September 2017, LawLex202300014548JBJ.

Cass. com., 22 May 1978, LawLex202300014539JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 23 October 1991, LawLex202300014531JBJ.

Cass. 2e civ., 15 January 2004, LawLex202300014524JBJ.

Indivisibility and plurality of parties

268. Indivisibility and plurality of parties