Facts
On September 18, 1998, the President of the District Court of Lausanne ordered the sequestration of the accounts of Ms. S. at Bank X. in Lausanne. The Debt Collection Office of Lausanne-West summoned the bank, under the threat of the criminal sanctions provided for in Art. 292 of the Swiss Criminal Code (CP), to inform it about the scope of the sequestration within a deadline expiring on October 19, 1998.
The bank contested this summons, arguing that it did not have the obligation to inform the office before the sequestration order became final and enforceable. Its appeals were rejected by the cantonal instances, which led it to bring the case before the Federal Tribunal.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal partially upheld the bank's appeal. It ruled that the duty to provide information by the third-party holder of the sequestered assets only arises at the end of the appeal period or, if applicable, at the conclusion of the appeal proceedings. This solution aims to avoid unnecessarily infringing on the banks' duty of confidentiality and takes into account the differences between the execution of sequestration and that of…