Background

A bank filed a case against a defendant requesting that the court order the defendant to announce his bankruptcy as he had failed to pay a debt.

The court rejected the case.

The bank appealed and the appeal court referred the case to the elementary court. The court ruled that the defendant announce his bankruptcy.

The defendant appealed and the appeal court upheld the ruling.

The defendant appealed by cassation.

Decision

Before the cassation court, the defendant argued that the ruling had erred in the application of law as he had maintained before the court that he did not owe the debt to the bank because the bank had no right to claim its value after five years of falling due under Article 194 of the Egypt Commerce Law, Egypt Law No. 17/1999.

The court held that this argument was valid as Article 194 of the Commerce Law stipulates that the creditor has no right to claim a debt after five years from the date the debt is due.

The court therefore repealed the ruling.