Facts
This decision concerns an appeal against a real estate auction. According to case law, when a complaint or appeal is definitively rejected, the challenged enforcement act regains full effect as of its original date, in all cases where such a retroactive effect is materially and reasonably possible. However, such a retroactive effect is excluded when it is not materially and reasonably possible, as is the case in bankruptcy matters.
In the present case, the cantonal supervisory authority held, by analogy with the case of bankruptcy, that it was not materially and reasonably possible to reverse all the consequences related to the postponement of the effects of the auction, in particular to retroactively cancel the multiple, direct and indirect consequences of the legal management of an entire real estate complex housing various businesses.
Considerations
The Federal Court considered that the complexity of the situation and the inevitable complications resulting from it are factual elements that bind the Chamber. Based on these elements, the cantonal supervisory authority was justified in accepting that the auction of May 25, 2001 had "ex nunc" effects, starting from the notification of the…