Facts
On 5 May 1986, the President of the Court of First Instance of Geneva ordered, at the request of [A.], the attachment of the assets of [S.], domiciled abroad, in various banks in Geneva, for a principal claim of 625,000 francs. The attaching creditor was required to deposit a security of 60,000 francs in advance, which he did. On 23 June 1986, [S.] requested the attachment authority to rule that the measure ordered on 5 May 1986 will only be maintained against the provision of securities by the plaintiff up to 500,000 francs. By order of 7 July 1986, the magistrate granted this request and set a deadline of three weeks for [A.] to complete the securities up to 500,000 francs. [A.] filed a public law appeal against this order.Considerations
The Federal Tribunal upheld the appeal. It considered that the attachment judge can take into account the loss of probability of the alleged claim, but that this does not affect the validity of the attachment order. However, the amount of the required securities was set in an arbitrary manner, insofar as it is based on a total of assets seized that greatly exceeds those up to which the attachment was granted, it takes…