Facts
This decision concerns an appeal against a decision of the cantonal debt enforcement and bankruptcy supervisory authority. The debtor, a French national, contested the place of the debt enforcement proceedings initiated against him, claiming that he had definitively established himself in France since April 15, 1993.
The lower cantonal authority and the cantonal court considered that the debtor had retained the center of his interests in Vevey, Switzerland, where he had a post office box and was regularly seen, although he had stayed in Lyon, in particular for health reasons, without having established himself there.
Considerations
According to the case law of the Federal Tribunal, the domicile of a natural person is determined by the place where he resides with the intention of settling there, this intention must be objectively manifest and recognizable by third parties. The intimate will of the person is not decisive in itself, it only has an effect on the domicile if it is confirmed by external facts.
In the present case, the cantonal instances found that the debtor had retained the center of his interests in…