In the absence of specific conditions limiting the guarantee or exclusion clauses, the insurance contract covering a declared real estate transaction activity or all activities falling within the scope of Law No. 70-9 of January 2, 1970 is likely to guarantee the liability of the insured in the provision of advice on the occasion of a real estate sale, in particular in the form of investment or tax exemption advice.
1st Civ . - November 14, 2018. No. 16-23.730.
Liability. - Abnormal disturbances of the neighborhood. - Full liability. - Conditions. - Direct relationship between the work and the disturbance caused.
In application of the principle according to which no one should cause an abnormal disturbance to others, a contractor, including a public works contractor, is fully liable to the neighbours who are victims for having carried out an activity directly related to the abnormal disturbance caused, notwithstanding the fact that the origin of the damage, caused by a vehicle, is located on public property.
3rd Civ . - November 8, 2018. No. 17-24.333.
Compulsory insurance. - Building works. - Guarantee. - Scope. - Limits. - Determination.
The activity “sealing on horizontal or inclined supports exclusively using the Paralon process”, declared by a contractor to his insurer, does not include the implementation of another waterproofing process.
3rd Civ . - November 8, 2018. No. 17-24.488
Identity of cause. - Obligation to concentrate means.
The principle of concentration of means does not extend to the simple option that the civil party derives from Article 470-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure to submit to the criminal court a request to obtain, in accordance with the rules of civil law, compensation for all damages resulting from the facts on which the proceedings were based.
Therefore, the fact that the civil party did not use this option does not render inadmissible as disregarding the authority of res judicata the requests for compensation for the same damages submitted by them before the civil court.
2nd Civ . - November 15, 2018. No. 17-18.656
Legal formalities. - Written contract. - Signature of the employer. - Reclassification as a permanent contract.
It follows from Article L. 1242-12 of the Labour Code that, having to be established in writing, the fixed-term employment contract must bear the signature of the employee and that of the employer.
The judgment which, in order to dismiss the employee's request to reclassify his fixed-term employment contract as an indefinite-term contract, holds that the absence of the employer's signature on this contract does not result in the application of this sanction is subject to cassation.
Soc. - November 14, 2018. No. 16-19.038.
Dismissal. - Cause. - Work accident or occupational disease. - Suspension of contract. - Termination during the suspension period.
It follows from Articles L. 1226-9 and L. 1226-13 of the French Labour Code that during periods of suspension of the employee's employment contract following an accident at work or an occupational disease, the employer may only terminate the contract if it can prove either serious misconduct on the part of the person concerned or the employer's inability to maintain the contract for a reason unrelated to the accident or illness, any termination of the employment contract pronounced in breach of these provisions being null and void.
The Court of Appeal, which held that termination by the occurrence of the term of a fixed-term employment contract subsequently reclassified as a permanent contract, constitutes not a null dismissal but a dismissal without real and serious cause, even though it had found that on the date of termination, the employment contract was suspended following an accident at work suffered by the employee, violates these articles.
Soc. - November 14, 2018. No. 17-18.891.
General rules. - Means of proof. - Non-contradictory documents. - Non-contradictory report corroborated by a non-contradictory amicable expert appraisal.
Once these elements have been submitted to the parties for free discussion, a court of appeal may, without violating the principle of adversarial proceedings, rely on a judicial expert report drawn up during proceedings between one of these parties and a third party and on an expert report drawn up unilaterally at the request of the latter, the value and scope of which it has sovereignly assessed.
3rd Civ . - November 15, 2018. No. 16-26.172.
Conclusions. - Conclusions on appeal. - Final submissions.
Pursuant to Article 954, paragraph 3, which became paragraph 4, of the Code of Civil Procedure, the parties must repeat, in their final submissions, the claims and arguments previously presented or invoked in their previous conclusions.
Failing this, they are deemed to have abandoned them and the court shall rule only on the last submissions filed. Only submissions that determine the subject matter of the dispute or that raise an incident, of whatever nature, likely to terminate the proceedings are subject to the requirements of this text.
Consequently, a decision by a court of appeal that holds that a party that has made submissions tending only to the inadmissibility of the submissions of the opposing party is deemed to have abandoned its previous submissions is subject to censure.
2nd Civ . - November 15, 2018. No. 17-27.844.