The Court of Cassation rules on the tacit confirmation of a null sales act and its implications on the characterization of renunciation.
Extract
[...] Court of Cassation, Civil Chamber September No. 15-15.129 - Can ignorance of the nullity of the disputed act preclude the characterization of tacit confirmation by execution of the commitment? - Introduction Cass. 3rd civ., September No. 15-15.129, PB On September the 3rdème civil chamber of the Court of Cassation quashes the judgments of February 16 and June of the Court of Appeal of Douai which dealt with the regime of confirmation. Two co-owners of a commercial and residential building, whose bare owners are their children and spouses, have renewed the commercial lease of the Sofrade company. [...]
[...] Notwithstanding, it dismisses the characterization of confirmation or tacit renunciation due to lack of evidence. The appellants, who are the SCI and the Cabinet Maréchal company, contest the nullity of the sale that sanctions the prohibition for an agent to become the acquirer of the property on which his mandate bears, whereas it is subject to a relative regime. It can thus be the subject of an express or tacit confirmation resulting from a manifest and conscious will or voluntary execution. [...]
[...] Can ignorance of the nullity of the disputed act exclude the characterization of tacit confirmation by execution of the commitment? The Court of Cassation, in the absence of knowledge of the nullity of the act, the spouses could not renounce to invoke this nullity with full knowledge of the facts, as the regime of confirmation requires. The cassation only operates here on the condemnation of SCP to guarantee to SCI half of the condemnation pronounced against it in the title of reimbursement of rents and deposits of guarantee Thus, the tacit confirmation of a null sales act, deduced from the voluntary execution of the act by the debtor, is only admitted if prior proof is provided that the latter was aware of the defective nature of the act. [...]
