Facts
On 11 May 2016, the Aarau district court rejected a lifting application filed by B. against A. However, the court charged A. with court costs of 300 CHF and condemned A. to pay B. a procedural indemnity of 984.65 CHF.
A. appealed this decision to the Argovia cantonal court, which rejected the appeal on 16 August 2016. A. then filed a complaint with the Federal Court, requesting the annulment of the cantonal court's decision and the condemnation of B. to pay the cantonal court costs and its own procedural costs.
Considerations
The Federal Court admitted the complaint, considering that the question of whether the costs of the lifting procedure can be charged to the debtor who raised an objection of compensation was a matter of principle. The Federal Court considered that the debtor had not acted in a dilatory manner by raising the objection of compensation in its response to the complaint, as it was not required to motivate its opposition.
The Federal Court also considered that the loser-pays principle (Art. 106 Abs. 1 ZPO) should apply, which means that the procedural costs should be borne by the claimant, namely B. The Federal Court further considered that the conditions for a distribution of costs…