Annulment of the private sale in bankruptcy

Facts

In the context of the bankruptcy of Walter Schuler, the bankruptcy administration privately sold a property to the company Rolba AG. The bankrupt debtor contested this sale with the cantonal supervisory authority, which ultimately annulled the sale. The bankruptcy administration and Rolba AG then appealed this decision to the Federal Tribunal.

Considerations

The Federal Tribunal considers that the private sale, although subject to public law conditions, has a civil character and can therefore be annulled on appeal, by analogy with the annulment of an auction sale.

However, a private sale can only be annulled for serious reasons. In this case, the Federal Tribunal considers that the bankruptcy administration provided potential buyers with information that did not clearly reflect the actual situation regarding an easement of way, which may have led them to withdraw or reduce their…