Decision on Costs and Expenses in Appeal Proceedings against a Decision to Lift an Attachment

Facts

On 22 February 2011, Y. Limited requested the District Court of Zurich to attach the assets of X. and his wife Z. held at bank W. AG in Zurich, South Africa. On 24 February 2011, the single judge ordered the attachment of all the debtors' seized assets, including specific accounts at the bank, for a claim of CHF 5,890,153 arising from an unlawful act. On 28 February 2011, the attachment orders were executed by the Zurich 1 debt collection office. X. and Z. filed objections to these orders. On 3 February 2012, the attachment judge upheld the objections and lifted the attachment orders.

Considerations

Y. Limited appealed against the decisions on the objections to the attachment. On 25 May 2012, the Zurich Cantonal Court of Appeal upheld the appeals and dismissed the objections to the attachment. It set the second-instance court costs at CHF 16,500 each, to be borne by the seized debtors, and ordered them to pay the seizing creditor a total of CHF 32,000 in costs (CHF 20,000 for the first-instance proceedings and CHF 12,000 for the second-instance proceedings).

X. and Z. appealed to the Federal Supreme Court against these decisions on costs and expenses, requesting the annulment of the amount of the second-instance…