Facts
X., a former client of company Y., asserted a claim of 330,247 francs as part of the inventory of the estate of the administrator of said company. For its part, company Y. asserted a claim of 373,068 francs, for the same reason. As the estate had been renounced, its bankruptcy was declared. The bankruptcy office excluded the claims of the two intervening parties during the collocation in March 2005. They then filed a contestation of the collocation schedule to have their status as creditors recognized.
In December 2005, an agreement was reached between the bankruptcy estate and company Y., providing that the latter's claim would be registered in the 3rd class of the collocation schedule. This modification was published on December 19, 2007. At an undetermined date, the bankruptcy estate and X. agreed that the latter's claim would be admitted in the 3rd class, which was published on April 9, 2008.
On April 19, 2008, X. filed an action to contest the collocation schedule, concluding that the claim of company Y. should be excluded. The court of first instance declared the contestation inadmissible due to tardiness, as the action had not been filed within the 20-day deadline following the publication of the admission of company Y.'s claim. The Cantonal Court of Justice of Geneva having confirmed this decision, X. appealed to the Federal Tribunal in a civil matter.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal dismissed the appeal. According to case law and the prevailing doctrine, the creditor whose production has been excluded from the collocation schedule, but who has appealed against this exclusion, must immediately contest, before a final decision is made on his own status as a creditor and under penalty of preclusion, the collocation of another claim. The 20-day deadline for filing a contestation runs…