LA motorist whose vehicle breaks down has a period of two years to sue the seller or the manufacturer, on the basis of the guarantee of hidden defects, says the‘article 1648 of the civil code. A hidden defect is a defect which makes the thing sold unfit for the use for which it is intended, or which reduces this use so much that the buyer, if he had known about it, would not have acquired it.
Does this deadline include the expert assessment operations necessary to uncover the hidden defect? Should it be limited by another deadline, a “stopper”, intended to prevent the manufacturer from finding itself, for eternity, under the threat of a lawsuit?
These are the questions that the Court of Cassation recently asked itself, through four cases, examined simultaneously, in a “mixed chamber” (in order to harmonize the case law of its different chambers), during audience filmed, given its importance (as permitted a recent law).
One of them concerned a motorist, Mr. after having traveled some 100,000 kilometers. Nissan refusing to participate in the contradictory expertise proposed by Mr. On October 23, 2013, the judge appointed an expert. On January 28, 2015, he submitted his report, which concluded that there was a hidden defect (Nissan having recognized this defect in a secret note from 2011).
“Balance” of interests
On June 6, 2016, Mr. X summons the builder, so that he is ordered to pay him the 24,000 euros necessary for the repair. Nissan responds that its action is time-barred. THE magistrates on the merits proving him wrong, he appealed to the Court of Cassation. The manufacturer’s lawyer, Me Claire Le Bret-Desaché, maintains that the action to guarantee hidden defects must be initiated within five years, from the initial sale (2007), under the terms ofarticle L110-4 of the commercial codeas judged by the first civil chamber and the commercial chamber of the Court, in the partial silence of the texts.
“ Such a short deadline would have expired even before the expert discovered the hidden defect! » (2015), objects Me Thomas Lyon-Caen, lawyer for MX He would have prevented his client from taking legal action, “while the right to a fair trial is guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights”. The action in guarantee of hidden defects can, according to him, only be limited by a deadline of twenty years, from the initial sale, by virtue of thearticle 2232 of the civil codeas judged by the Third Chamber.
You have 24.42% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.