Facts
Polish limited liability company A. was declared bankrupt by the District Court of B. (Poland) on 11 December 2007. On 24 June 2010, the Court of First Instance of the canton of Geneva recognized the bankruptcy judgment in Switzerland and ordered the execution of the ancillary bankruptcy. Creditor X. SA was admitted to the schedule of claims as a "movable pledge" for a claim of CHF 1,576,756.49, secured by the pledge of A.'s claims listed under item 1 of the inventory.
On 28 June 2011, the office asked X. SA if it waived the administration's recovery of the claims listed under item 1 of the inventory and offered to assign the estate's rights in accordance with art. 260 DEBA, which it accepted. The Polish bankruptcy estate filed a complaint against this decision, which was annulled by the Court of Justice of the canton of Geneva.
X. SA filed a civil law appeal against this judgment, which was partially admitted by the Federal Tribunal. The Federal Tribunal invited the Geneva Bankruptcy Office to pay X. SA the claims of A. against Z. SA and Y. SA up to CHF 1,576,756.49 and to assign the balance to the foreign bankruptcy estate.
Considerations
The Federal Tribunal examined the question of whether the foreign bankruptcy estate had the capacity to file a complaint against the decision of the ancillary estate administration to assign rights to a scheduled creditor. The Federal Tribunal considered that the capacity to appeal under art. 17 DEBA is recognized for any person harmed or exposed to harm in their legally protected interests.
The Federal Tribunal also examined the question of whether all scheduled creditors in the ancillary bankruptcy or only privileged creditors could obtain the assignment of claims before it was offered to the foreign bankruptcy estate administration. The Federal Tribunal considered that pledge creditors and privileged creditors could obtain the assignment of claims.
The Federal Tribunal applied the rules relating to the…