VSHow can a bailiff enforce a court decision if the convicted person has disappeared and only his notary knows his new address but he refuses to give it, in the name of professional secrecy? “If the bailiff – who became a “commissioner of justice” on 1er July 2022 – has his date and place of birth, he can obtain this address, from the administrations”indicates Me Marie-Christine Gette-Pene, President of the Syndicate of Commissioners of Justice of Francespecifying that this results from the provisions of the law Bottle of December 22, 2010. “Otherwise, he can do nothing, the notary not having – which is incomprehensible – the obligation to answer him”, ase recalls the following case.
In 2016, Mr.me X, owner of real estate in Essonne, concludes, before his notary, a sales agreement with a buyer, Mme Y, which does not move, but which is represented by Me N, notary practicing in Argentan (Orne). In 2017, the compromise became null and void, for lack of the purchaser having raised the necessary funds. The latter refusing to pay the penalty provided for, of 15,000 euros, Mme X must assign it. On May 4, 2018, she obtained her conviction.
Alas, when the bailiff shows up at the home of Mr.me Y, to serve her the judgment, he discovers that she has moved without leaving an address. He asks for his new coordinates to M.e N, who opposes the professional secrecy provided for by the law of 25 ventôse year XI. This text says that the notary cannot deliver information to third parties without having been authorized to do so. “by an order of the president of the tribunal de grande instance” (became “judicial court”).
Judicial authority
Mme X must therefore go to court again to obtain this order. Furious at this new delay, she summons the notary to the court of Argentan, so that he compensates her. On November 5, 2020, Me N is ordered to pay him 500 euros. The court accuses him of having “obstructed” to the execution of the judgment. He asserts that professional secrecy should not have exempted him “to reveal to the judicial authority who [a requis] the address of a client… essential for the execution of a court decision”.
Me N is appealing in cassation, and his lawyer, Me Jean de Salve de Bruneton, recalls that “although required to enforce court decisions, the bailiff is not a judicial authority”. The notary could not therefore communicate to him the litigious address without having previously been authorized by the president of the court, which the Court of Cassation recognized, on January 21 (2023, 20-23.679).
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