Deletion of the restriction on the right of alienation following the provision of securities pursuant to Art. 277 DEBA

Facts

In this case, the creditors Credilisa S.A. and René Ravier had obtained the sequestration of several parcels belonging to Clinique des Charmettes S.A. and/or Résidence de la Clinique des Charmettes S.A. for unpaid claims. The Debt Enforcement Office had then proceeded to annotate restrictions on the right of alienation in the land register. Subsequently, Clinique des Charmettes S.A. provided joint and several guarantees from UBS pursuant to Art. 277 DEBA, which led the Office to accept these securities, lift the sequestrations, and request the deletion of the restrictions on the right of alienation. The sequestering creditors contested this decision, without success before the lower instances.

Considerations

The Court first rejected the appellants' argument that Art. 6 of the Ordinance on the Forced Realization of Immovable Property (ORI) contains an exhaustive list of cases for the deletion of a restriction on the right of alienation. It considered that this provision is not limitative and that the provision of securities pursuant to Art. 277 DEBA may lead to the deletion of such a restriction.

Furthermore, the Court held that Art. 277 DEBA, which allows for the substitution of sequestered objects with at least equivalent securities, also applies to immovable property. The objective pursued, which is to alleviate the debtor's situation, can be achieved in the case of immovable property as well as for movable property. Since the debtor is not required to keep the sequestered goods themselves available, but only to represent their value, the application of Art. 277 DEBA logically leads…