Chronopost Case: Limitation of Liability Clause Deemed Not Written

Extract

[...] Indeed, the Court of Cassation specifies that due to the existence of a limitation of liability clause on the essential obligation of Chronopost company, the commitment of the latter was no longer in line with what Banchereau company had agreed to contract with it. It is obvious that if Chronopost company emphasizes to its contractors that it can deliver the next day, but that by the play of a simple limitation of its liability, it can fail to respect it, its essential obligation to deliver the next day is totally emptied of its substance. [...]

[...] This is what we see in the case of the judgment where the Court of Cassation uses expressions like 'contradicted the scope of the commitment made' or 'breach of its essential obligation'. This shows the will of the Court of Cassation to take into account the general economy of the contract, the proportionality of the performances of the parties. The emblematic judgment concerning this movement of subjectivization is the judgment of the first civil chamber of July 'Point club vidéo'. [...]

[...] 93-18.632 - Is a clause limiting liability that affects the essential obligation valid? Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber October 'Chronopost' « If you understood the cause, it's because it was poorly explained to you." This famous quote from Professor Denis Mazeau shows the difficulty of understanding the old notion of cause of the contract. This difficulty is taken into account by the reform of the law of obligations, since the legislator will renounce using the term cause. But ultimately, it is only a terminological simplification since from the angle of "content of the contract" the reform text codifies certain case law solutions that had been more or less artificially linked to the notion of cause. [...]

[...] The Court of Cassation uses exactly this reasoning to sanction the presence of this limitation of liability clause. But however, this vision of the Court can be criticized, is it not a total distortion of the notion of cause, because the cause is no longer considered at the time of the formation of the contract, but at the time of its execution. The cause, whether objective or subjective, is obviously present at the time of the formation of the contract in this case and it is only during its execution that the Court observes that it no longer exists. [...]

[...] Is a limitation of liability clause that relates to the essential obligation valid? The commercial chamber of the Court of Cassation responds negatively and quashes and annuls the judgment rendered by the Court of Appeal of Rennes under Article 1131 of the old Civil Code on the grounds that 'as a specialist in rapid transport guaranteeing the reliability and speed of its service, the Chronopost company had committed to delivering the Banchereau company's letters within a determined time frame, and that due to the breach of this essential obligation, the limiting liability clause of the contract, which contradicted the scope of the commitment made, had to be deemednon-existent written By this solution, we therefore observe that the cause is at the service of the contractual balance and that the chosen sanction is also original as well as founding I. [...]