ECC 897/2000

A case involved whether a bank had reason to request that the court declare a defendant bankrupt.

Background

A bank filed a case against a defendant requesting that the court order the defendant to announce his bankruptcy. The bank stated that the defendant was a merchant and owed the bank 16000 Egyptian Pounds.

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 insufficient evidence of causation as the creditors' agent had provided the court of appeal with a report which confirmed that the defendant had paid the debt. The defendant stated that he had sent the bank a warning to reveal the value of the disputed cheque but the court had ignored this defence.

The court held that this argument was valid as the court had assumed that the lack of funds to cover the cheque was evidence of the payment being halted without investigation as to whether this halt was due to the financial status of the defendant or other reasons.

The court therefore repealed the ruling.