September 2024

Decision of the Athens Single-Member CFI regarding the Cancellation of a Payment Order against an alleged Guarantor amounting to 800,000 euros due to the lack of Proof of Currency Conversion Agreement

Recently, the Athens Court of First Instance issued decision no. 9266/2024. In this ruling, a payment order issued against our client by a banking institution under special liquidation, in the context of their dispute regarding the client's alleged guarantee liability of nearly €800,000, was annulled. The court accepted the client's argument in the appeal concerning the lack of written evidence for the payment order in question, and therefore, procedural inadmissibility was found. Specifically, it was determined that, in cases where there is a currency conversion in a loan agreement, and in this case, a financial leasing agreement (e.g., from Swiss francs to euros), it is necessary to submit the currency conversion documents (such as conversion requests, acceptance letters, etc.) in the application file for the issuance of the relevant enforceable title to prove the claim (for which the payment order is being sought). The critical passages of the decision state verbatim: 'The aforementioned letters, through which the currency conversion of the rents, calculated at a specific exchange rate (1 euro = 1.2030 Swiss francs), took place, were not submitted by the respondent for the issuance of the payment order, although they were obliged to submit them to prove the amount of their claim. Consequently, since the claim of the respondent against whom the appeal was made was not proven by public or private documents or a combination of such documents, the ninth reason for appeal, under section (f), must be accepted as substantively valid, and there is no need to examine the remaining reasons for the appeal, as the acceptance of one reason fully satisfies the request for the annulment of the payment order.'"