Decision No. 822/2022 of the Athens Court of First Instance was issued, by which a payment order issued against a guarantor in a credit agreement with an open mutual account was annulled, as a newer interest-bearing loan agreement with the same bank had followed, in which the guarantor had not entered into a contract and by which the balance of the credit was repaid. In particular, the court held that the new agreement was not merely a settlement of the debt arising from the credit agreement, but a new separate interest-bearing loan agreement, which settled the debt arising from the credit agreement. This was the conclusion reached by the court, as the new contract had different contracting parties (the original guarantor had not signed it), provided for a different method of repayment of the amount borrowed, with interest-bearing monthly instalments payable on specific dates, had a different duration from the original contract, and the bank was entitled to terminate the contract in the event of a delay in the payment of three monthly instalments, unlike the original contract, which it could terminate at any time at its own discretion. Moreover, in the accounts opened to service the new contract, the first entry referred to 'loan disbursement' rather than 'transfer from account'. On the basis of the above indications, the court held that this was a new stand-alone contract and not merely an arrangement of an existing debt, which, since the guarantor had not signed it, did not assume liability under it.
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