Facts
In late 1981, the plaintiff, a dealer of luxury automobiles, purchased a Ferrari for 77,000 Swiss francs from a representative of a Danish car dealership company. It turned out that the vehicle had been stolen in Paris. The French insurance company that had compensated the rightful owner filed a counterclaim against the plaintiff for the return of the deposited sales proceeds.
The district court dismissed the claim and upheld the counterclaim. The plaintiff appealed the judgment to the Federal Supreme Court.
Considerations
The Federal Supreme Court held that the protection of good faith under Art. 934 para. 2 of the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB) is denied if the acquirer failed to exercise the due diligence required by the circumstances when acquiring the item. In such cases, the legal consequences for the good faith acquirer are no different than for the bad faith acquirer - the item must be returned to the rightful owner without compensation.
Particularly high standards of care must be imposed on dealers of luxury automobiles, such as the plaintiff. Due to the peculiarities of…