Correction of the parties' designations rather than substitution of parties

Facts

The holding company A. Corporation and its subsidiary A. Company have filed a public law appeal against a judgment of the Court of Justice of the Canton of Geneva that ordered the correction of the parties' designations, replacing A. Corporation with A. Company in the ongoing proceedings. The facts are as follows: C. Ltd. and D. SA sued B. AG and A. Corporation before the Court of First Instance of the Canton of Geneva, alleging misappropriation of funds committed to their detriment between 1988 and 1992 by the governing bodies of B. AG and A. Corporation. In its response, A. Corporation raised its lack of passive legitimacy, explaining that it was a mere holding company without any activity and that it was its subsidiary A. Company that supervised the activities of B. AG. The Court of First Instance then ordered the correction of the parties' designations, replacing A. Corporation with A. Company.

Considerations

According to the case law of the Federal Tribunal, the substitution of parties, which implies the replacement of a party by a third party, must be carefully distinguished from the simple correction of the parties' designations, which aims to address a drafting error. Correction is only possible if any risk of confusion can be excluded. In the present case, the Court of Justice considered that there was only a marginal risk of confusion and proceeded with the correction. However, the Federal Tribunal considers that the Court of Justice…