Withdrawal of an Enforcement Proceeding by the Creditor

Facts

After service of the payment order No. x from the Debt Collection Office L. dated September 16, 1997, A. paid the claim being enforced to the Office on September 26, 1997 on behalf of the creditor. In Enforcement Proceeding No. xx, the debtor paid the claim asserted by the creditor to the Debt Collection Office on August 23, 1999 after service of the notice of attachment. In both enforcement proceedings, the creditors requested the deletion or cancellation of the enforcement proceedings at the request of the debtor.

The Debt Collection Office rejected the requests for deletion of the enforcement proceedings on January 4, 2000. The complaint filed by A. against this was unsuccessful.

The Debt Collection and Bankruptcy Chamber of the Federal Supreme Court upholds the complaint filed by A. on August 7, 2000 against the decision of the High Court of the Canton of Aargau (Debt Collection and Bankruptcy Commission) as the higher supervisory authority in debt collection and bankruptcy matters.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court states that according to Art. 8a Para. 3 lit. c DEBA, the Debt Collection Office may not inform third parties of an enforcement proceeding if the creditor has withdrawn the enforcement proceeding. This applies regardless of when the withdrawal took place, i.e., whether before or after payment.

The lower court had argued that an enforcement proceeding settled by payment could no…