Dismissal of the Bankruptcy Petition of the Appellant

Facts

The appellant [A.] filed an insolvency declaration with the District Court of Horgen and requested the opening of bankruptcy proceedings. The District Court dismissed the bankruptcy petition. [A.] appealed against this decision to the Cantonal Court of Zurich, which also dismissed the appeal.

[A.] then filed a civil law appeal with the Federal Supreme Court. She requested the annulment of the Cantonal Court's judgment and the granting of her request for the opening of bankruptcy proceedings. Alternatively, she requested the case be remanded for a new assessment.

Considerations

The Federal Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. It stated that the lower instance had rightly considered the bankruptcy petition to be an abuse of rights. According to the case law of the Federal Supreme Court, a bankruptcy petition is an abuse of rights if the debtor seeks their own bankruptcy in the knowledge that the bankruptcy estate has no or too little assets whose proceeds could be distributed to the creditors.

In the present case, the Federal Supreme Court found that the appellant's assets of only around CHF 2,100 were negligible compared to her debts of over CHF 187,000. Even if the…