INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Supreme Court of Cassation: telematic appeal valid even if the party has filed a complaint with an analogue copy of native digital documents.
The dispute reached the Court of Cassation. According to the appellants, the filing of the analogue copy of the certified e-mail message, its attachments and the receipt of acceptance and delivery with the relevant certificate of conformity replaced the filing of the electronic original for all purposes. In addition, it was to be considered that this document had not been contested by the counterparties; nor had the complaint of forgery been lodged; therefore, the declaration of unfeasibility of the appeal had to be considered unlawful.
The Court of Cassation, Civil Division II, in its Order No. 28207 of 4 November 2024, considers the plea to be well-founded. The lower court judge, explains the Supreme Court, had ascertained that ‘the defence counsel for the main appellants, who had served the notice of appeal in telematic form, entered an appearance in the proceedings according to the traditional paper forms, filing analogue copies of native digital documents (of the summons, the service report, the receipts of acceptance and delivery of the certified e-mail message, with certification of conformity), without filing telematically the originals or computerised duplicates of such documents’. And with the closing appearance the defence of the appellants had filed the report of notification of the appeal accompanied by the receipts of acceptance and delivery in digital format.
The Court ofCassation does not agree with ‘ the formal rigour of the Court of Appeal’ according to which in the case of telematic constitution of the appellant, the proof of service by certified mail of the summons instituting the appeal proceedings must be provided, by the hearing referred to in Article 350 of the Code of Civil Procedure, only by telematic means.
There is in fact no obligation to produce the notification by telematic means. For these reasons, the appeal is allowed by order No. 28207 of 4 November 2024.
The Court of Cassation, Civil Division II, in its Order No. 28207 of 4 November 2024, considers the plea to be well-founded. The lower court judge, explains the Supreme Court, had ascertained that ‘the defence counsel for the main appellants, who had served the notice of appeal in telematic form, entered an appearance in the proceedings according to the traditional paper forms, filing analogue copies of native digital documents (of the summons, the service report, the receipts of acceptance and delivery of the certified e-mail message, with certification of conformity), without filing telematically the originals or computerised duplicates of such documents’. And with the closing appearance the defence of the appellants had filed the report of notification of the appeal accompanied by the receipts of acceptance and delivery in digital format.
The Court ofCassation does not agree with ‘ the formal rigour of the Court of Appeal’ according to which in the case of telematic constitution of the appellant, the proof of service by certified mail of the summons instituting the appeal proceedings must be provided, by the hearing referred to in Article 350 of the Code of Civil Procedure, only by telematic means.
There is in fact no obligation to produce the notification by telematic means. For these reasons, the appeal is allowed by order No. 28207 of 4 November 2024.
