Dismissal of the appeal against the decision of the Court of Justice of the Canton of Geneva confirming the admission of the opposition to debt collection proceedings for bills of exchange

Facts

In 1963 and 1964, the company Fingerco SA negotiated with H. Dialdas a financial transaction involving the deposit of 4 million Swiss francs by Dialdas with the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) for 5 years, with interest and commissions. On 15 January 1964, Fingerco issued a bill of exchange for 127,000 francs to Dialdas, replaced on 30 January by two drafts. Dialdas transferred these drafts to the lawyer Adly Yousseuf Seinety.

Seinety had two debt collection proceedings for bills of exchange notified to Fingerco, one for 100,000 francs and the other for 27,000 francs. The oppositions to these debt collection proceedings were transmitted to the Court of First Instance of Geneva, which admitted the oppositions and granted Seinety a 10-day deadline to bring his payment actions. The Court of Justice of the Canton of Geneva confirmed these judgments.

Seinety appealed to the Federal Tribunal against these decisions, alleging a violation of Art. 4 Cst.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal dismisses the appeal. It considers that the payment action provided for in Art. 184 para. 2 DEBA constitutes a means of cantonal law that must be exhausted before filing a public law appeal. As these actions have not yet been adjudicated, the legal requirement of exhaustion of cantonal instances is not met.

Furthermore, the Federal Tribunal considers that the fact that the judge rules on the admissibility of the opposition more than 5 days after the hearing, as provided for in Art. 181 DEBA, is not arbitrary given the complexity of the…