Using real estate beyond what is agreed with its owner is an abuse of trust which can be criminally punished. The Court of Cassation, which until now excluded that a breach of trust could relate to a building, but mainly to funds, values or movable property, has changed its case law.
Breach of trust is defined by law as the misappropriation of these funds, values or property by making them for a use other than that for which they were only entrusted. Any property can be real estate, now judged by the Court of Cassation.
The owner of a piece of land had entrusted it to a company for the purpose of burying waste and it later emerged that waste from an unspecified source had also been buried, this additional quantity reducing the remaining capacity of the land.
The non-agreed use of this property, by a person who behaves like an owner, even momentarily, is misappropriation, declared the judges to condemn the author of these concealed facts. Because the author of the facts secretly made a profit from the real estate, which at the same time reduced its capacity for the future, which characterizes an abusive and criminally reprehensible use.
In its judgment, the Court of Cassation recalls that all kinds of property can be the subject of a breach of trust. A bank card number or a professional internet connection, she cites, when they are used for a time or for operations which were not agreed with the owner.
(Cass. Crim, 13.3.2024, W 22-83.689).
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